The "Meat shield" disinfo is in the grand scheme of things nothing but a gross excuse for the extreme casualties, just like the 40 dead babies thing, or "cave complexes below every hospital" or other campaign PR like "we are doing it because of WMD's in iraq". It's excuses to dominate.
Most has been debunked if you follow independent media. But it seems most here doesn't. US media is highly pro war and for some reason peddles these lies over and over again like Iraq, Afghanistan or so many other wars.
Most people were just regular farmers. That you think a whole region were bloodthirsty barbarians really says more about the racism of american media than anything else.
Most people are regular families just living everywhere on earth throughout all times. That's the beauty of humans, but war campaigns vilifies people so we can dominate them to "protect" us.