Silence
The television rains flashes of static into the room. I've switched it onto an empty channel, unable to tolerate the tunnel vision and endless repetition of the news channels. They aren't SCUDs, they're crappier short-range missiles. The patriots aren't necessarily working better than in '91 - these slow, short-range missiles are easier to hit. If I hear these anchors say "Shock and Awe" one more time...
But I digress. The television is on mute. There can only be silence here. There are no words for the horror. The networks avoid it entirely, but I know what's happening. A 2,000 lb JDAM bomb has a radius of total lethality of a hundred and twenty metres. Beyond that, shrapnel can still kill and cause serious damage out to more than three hundred and fifty metres. To be completely safe from the fragmentation, one must be over a kilometer away.
There are apartment buildings next door to many of these targets.
Only 50% of JDAMs will hit within thirteen metres of their target point. These are not precision-weapons.
And I know that the first people dying were probably the janitors.