Vineyard_ t1_j24soga wrote
Reply to comment by Mackem101 in Russian missile attack on Kyiv Oblast: 21 houses, hospital and cars damaged by HarakenQQ
Strategic bombing famously never works if the goal is to demoralize the population into surrender, and only works if the bombing is sustained and constant if the goal is to damage war production capacity.
In the case of Ukraine, that second point isn't even relevant because the production that keeps Ukraine in this war isn't happening in Ukraine.
It's also much easier for NATO governments to justify providing more assistance to Ukraine if Russia indiscriminately murders civilians, making this whole thing an even worse idea than it normally is.
Skyrick t1_j267b7w wrote
People do it for the same reason we still torture people. It’s appeal is how simple the logic is behind it. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t work. The concept of why it should work is simple enough that people will continue to try it for all of eternity.
szReyn t1_j26yrz0 wrote
Throwing dead cows into a sieged city could work. Citizens trapped inside walls and being forced to deal with the disease, inability to bring in more food, and rampant disease. It might not make them surrender, but it could passively kill enough they could no longer defend.
But in the modern day this stands no chance of working. The conditions don't exist for that possibility l. Instead it depletes your reserves, emboldens your enemy, and makes them fight harder.
And in this case it doesn't even reduce your enemies war capacity. Ukraine is being fed their war material. They don't need anywhere near as much local production. On the other hand, no one is feeding Russia any significant amount of war material and cannot produce it as fast as they are using/losing it.
Russia is still fighting as if it's the 1600's. And when you look at their history? It's really no surprise. They've been fucked since the black death.
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