"War is, by its nature, ugly. There are some agreed-upon rules (sometimes honored in the breech) and there are some countries that make their own rules – higher or lower than international standards. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Israel in the 2014 Gaza War went to 'extraordinary lengths' to protect the civilian population within which Hamas had hidden. So much so that he sent a senior American military delegation to learn from Israeli tactics.
The White House, which criticized Israel at that time for not being careful enough, appears to have set its own standard for the U.S. Air Force: zero civilian casualties...
Calling 'zero casualties' the 'new normal,' LTG John Hesterman III, commander of the coalition air war said in a separate statement, 'That's been true for about the last 10 years, by the way -- you know, based on the way we do conflict.'
The result of 'the way we do conflict' is that ISIS has had time to spread itself among the civilians of Iraq -- much like Hamas amid the civilians of Gaza. This reduces the likelihood of future sorties and reduces any fear ISIS might have had that we will conduct meaningful warfare...
Air Force Col. Ed Thomas, spokesman for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff quite rightly notes, 'How we conduct ourselves in warfare against a terrorist enemy intermingled within the society that they have infiltrated will have profound impacts on the way in which the U.S. is viewed in the Middle East and in this campaign.' But to the civilians begging for rescue, our self-imposed restraint assuages our conscience while consigning them longer to a ferocious foe."