The unfortunate reality of war is that citizens not directly involved in conflict sometimes lose their lives. But the Iraqi regime's guerrilla tactics in the current war are forcing the civilian death toll into ungodly high numbers.

On Monday, U.S. soldiers shot and killed at least seven Iraqi women and children at a checkpoint in southern Iraq. The soldiers opened fire when the driver of the van failed to stop as ordered.

The American soldiers were from a division that had just lost four of its soldiers Saturday at a different checkpoint when an Iraqi soldier posing as a taxi driver detonated a car bomb in a suicide attack.

While the death of civilians is the last thing the U.S. military wants, the soldiers' gut reaction came from the loss of their colleagues at the hands of contemptible actions by Iraqi troops. Iraq's irresponsible behavior in the face of war caused the death of innocent women and children - the blame lies with the Iraqi military alone.

Iraq's guerilla warfare has created a Catch-22 for American troops. After Saturday's suicide attack, soldiers became completely untrustworthy of all Iraqis doing anything mildly suspicious. And now, after killing at least seven civilians, the military needs to watch out for the citizens they're attempting to liberate.

This is not a war Iraq asked for, so to come in now and ask them to keep it clean seems hypocritical. But Saddam Hussein and Iraqi military officials need to recognize the needless death of Iraqi citizens is taking place around them. Because of this, they should want to fight the fair fight.

If Iraqi officials want their government to remain, they should make sure there are subjects left to govern.

Iraq's tactics and its ultimate consequences are sick, sad and, unfortunately, the price of war. No one wants to kill Iraqi civilians, but Iraq is making it difficult not to.