In Afghanistan and Iraq we already knew that bombing people was not how you get rid of ideas. That’s why we spent 20 and 10 years (respectively) in those countries. We weren’t bombing anything if we could help it. And in Iraq we managed to put in a semi-stable government. In Afghanistan we managed to push the majority of the fighting into the mountains, away from most civilian population centers. We just straight screwed up the civil part afterwards.
We learned that bombing doesn’t kill morale in World War 1, World War 2, Korea, and Vietnam. Vietnam is the last time we tried carpet bombing civilian populations, and is often cited as the reason we developed the guided bomb kits, small diameter bombs, and even kamikaze drones that specifically do not explode and cause as little disturbance as possible other than people they directly impact.
This has been a learned lesson with a known solution for decades.
In Afghanistan and Iraq we already knew that bombing people was not how you get rid of ideas. That’s why we spent 20 and 10 years (respectively) in those countries. We weren’t bombing anything if we could help it. And in Iraq we managed to put in a semi-stable government. In Afghanistan we managed to push the majority of the fighting into the mountains, away from most civilian population centers. We just straight screwed up the civil part afterwards.
We learned that bombing doesn’t kill morale in World War 1, World War 2, Korea, and Vietnam. Vietnam is the last time we tried carpet bombing civilian populations, and is often cited as the reason we developed the guided bomb kits, small diameter bombs, and even kamikaze drones that specifically do not explode and cause as little disturbance as possible other than people they directly impact.
This has been a learned lesson with a known solution for decades.