Yes, I think this is because despite simply recounting the justifications for levelling a city that US forces put forth, it gives the misleading impression of having some suggestion on how to improve things.

I do think that the US military is reporting their objectives honestly. Armies are very much task focused organisations, and it really doesn't work if you are unclear about the task.

What does tend to be questionable is the metrics reported towards completion of the task: a military tends to solve tasks given to it no matter how it must misreport things on the ground. Ground reports are usually unreliable anyway.