SV,
The reason for the increase of the use of force in the past 15 years has been the winding down of the cold war and the increased instability in many regions of the world that that has created. It has nothing to do with advances in US military techonology. Without the advance in US military techonology, the US would still be involved in these area's, the only difference would be a much higher number of civilian deaths.
For example, taking out a Radar or airdefense weapons system in downtown Baghdad with the technology we have today can usually be done without loss of civilian life. A precision weapon system is selected and loaded with a warhead that will be enough to destroy the target without doing damage to the surrounding area.
Before this was available, dumb bombs with large warheads would be used to take out the target and it may have taken 10 20 or 30 or maybe more to actually hit it. The misses of course fell all around the target destroying all kinds of civilian targets.
Now, and attack that would normaly kill hundreds of civilians often kills none.
In Iraq, most of the targets hit in the no fly zones are not in residential area's to begin with. Often Iraqi anti-aircraft bullets and shells will fall to the ground without having hit an aircraft or exploded in the air, and cause civilian deaths on the ground. But sometimes civilian deaths have happened, and in response to this, US military personal developed away to use slabs of concrete to take out targets like radars and anti-aircraft guns. In this, the kinetic energy of the concrete is enough to destroy the target, and explosive warhead is not needed.
No international organization has free access to anything in Iraq. They are only allowed to see and go where Saddam Hussain allows. There for any study done by these organizations is totally flawed because no accurate assesment can be attained because of the creation of facts by various means by the Iraqi government. Its a police state and not a democracy. Only the military has the means the technical means to see what is going on.
While the number of deaths in Iraq is most likely inflated, they are all due to Saddam Hussain who still has the money and ability to fix these problems but chooses to spend it on his security, military, and strange buildings that serve no purpose. Not to mention most like continueing to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The oil for food program allows Iraq to sell its oil for humanitarian supplies. Over 18 billion dollars a year. Most nations in Sub Saharan Africa would foam at the mouth just to get some of that.
If you want to know about large civilian losses due to military action, read about the Iran/Iraq war from 1980-1988! While they may have targeted civilian populations for sick reasons, the US military has no reason to target any civilian period. Its a human rights violation to do so, against the US military code of conduct, waste vital resources and time, and serves and achieves no purpose.
To sum up, what ever civilian losses that have resulted from bombing in Iraq are small. What every infastructer that was destroyed that might effect civilians can and is easily repairable by Saddam Hussain. He has no problem repairing military targets that are more expensive and take more time.
Any organization that goes there and reports, reports only the picture that the Iraqi government wants to see. Only US spies, or the military itself through various inteligence resources know the real story of what is going on in Iraq because it is a police state. Technology has vastly reduced the normal civilian deaths from bombing and other forms of warfare, with the Gulf War and conflicts of the no fly zones being a perfect example!