There's also the fact that he's a veteran of the Afghanistan war (not sure if you toured in Iraq, Massively) who is likely far better versed on the situation there than any of us.
Civilian deaths are unavoidable in war. I see it as something to be minimized as best as possible without compromising the mission.
Far too often I saw people who weren't very receptive to efforts for them, and too often they'd come to us with their problems, explaining that it was our fault, and sending and encouraging their teenagers to take $5 from the Chechnyan or Taliban insurgents to come lob mortars at us. My view is that we're too concerned with being the good-guy, too concerned with being compassionate humanitarians? My personal solution? Put the ****** fear of god into them. Show them what happens when you **** around with the top dog. Make them afraid, so terrified as to render any hope of retaliation into the realm of pathetic impotence on their part.
And to me, that's being hopelessly merciful. Honestly, the solution to the problem is the same as the Catalyst's: You have a terrorist problem (or whatever problem you think of from people in some region)? Go in, kill em' all. What problem? That's the more nihilistic side of me.
I have another side, and I prefer deferring to it. Not nearly as messy, and I typically don't have to fill out as many DD-449 Forms stating why I just expended $26 million worth of munitions in a week in some shanty village on the side of a mountain (true story, I'll have to get back to you on that).
Depending on what your view of them, targeting them can be a valid strategy if you're going for shock and awe factor: Terrorize them. Cow them into submission. It can work. There's a million and one other COB tactics (civilian on battlefield), and you do have to deal with it on a case by case basis. Sometimes, winning hearts and minds work, sometimes hard war works. Depends on what your endstate, strategy, mission intent, and objective are.