"This is a very good insight. I think we all know that simply destroying Iraq would have resulted in few if any American casualties, and we are paying in lives for taking the more humanitarian approach. We did not follow and massacre fleeing troops. We did not obliterate cities containing hostiles. We don't shoot back when shot at from civilian areas...at least not until recently. We are making every effort not to antagonize the populace. And we get no credit for this."

The reason it wasn't done is that it is an international war crime to do so. The people who ordered such attacks would find themselves in jail in the Hague like Milosevich. It's not a courtesy or an inconvenience to not being a mass murderer it's a moral imperative. Sorry to see "thou shalt not kill" is such a bother.