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by danharaj 2783 days ago
> Would you consider drones and smart bombs bad when the alternative is carpet bombing?

No one was ever going to carpet bomb a wedding.

3 comments

> No one was ever going to carpet bomb a wedding.

Not a wedding, indeed, an entire town, with possibly dozens of weddings happening at the same time. Plus hospitals, schools, etc.

If you had to pick between carpet bombing and smart bombs, which one would you pick? (And consider you don't have a choice, like the trolley problem, you NEED to pick one).

>And consider you don't have a choice

How do we not have a choice to NOT bomb a desert on the other side of the world?

Okay let's just assume I figured out a clever way around your constraints while still avoiding the answer you want us to give. Are you just going to add another constraint to hide from the truth?

Can you at least accept that the burden of proof is on the guy who wants to go bomb random people not on the pacifists.

> And consider you don't have a choice, like the trolley problem, you NEED to pick one

Can I choose to drop the bomb on Americans instead?

They've carpet bombed other places when they didn't have the alternative of a targeted strike at a wedding.
Really? When and where?
Throughout the 20th century across the globe.
Ah, I had assumed you were talking about any time in the last 30 years.
Operation Gomorrah which began on 24 July 1943 and lasted for 8 days and 7 nights. Hamburg, Germany.

>killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000 in Hamburg and virtually destroying most of the city.

>The unusually warm weather and good conditions meant that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets and also created a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which created a 460 meter high tornado of fire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Hamburg_in_World_Wa...

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17 January 1991 – 23 February 1991

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_air_campaign

>2,000–3,000 Iraqi civilians killed

>10,000–12,000 killed

>100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tons of bombs,

>Coalition bombing raids destroyed Iraqi civilian infrastructure. 11 of Iraq's 20 major power stations and 119 substations were totally destroyed, while a further six major power stations were damaged.[18][19] At the end of the war, electricity production was at four percent of its pre-war levels. Bombs destroyed the utility of all major dams, most major pumping stations, and many sewage treatment plants, telecommunications equipment, port facilities, oil refineries and distribution, railroads and bridges were also destroyed.

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NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia

>The bombing killed between 489 and 528 civilians, and destroyed bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, as well as barracks and military installations.

>In 2000, a year after the bombing ended, Group 17 published a survey dealing with damage and economic restoration. The report concluded that direct damage from the bombing totalled $3.8 billion, not including Kosovo, of which only 5% had been repaired at that time

>In 2006, a group of economists from the G17 Plus party estimated the total economic losses resulting from the bombing were about $29.6 billion.

Neither the Gulf War air campaign nor the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia qualifies as a 'carpet bombing.' Both struck individually targeted strategic targets while attempting to minimize civilian casualties.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_Wa...

We're in a world where the destructive properties of a modern army are so extreme that combat has evolved/devolved to medieval like small scale/intensity battle. Instead of targeting economic output, social networks of individuals are targeted.

People always seek effective ways to kill their enemies in conflict.