> Bombing Kyiv Into Submission? History Says It Won't Work.
> By Max Fisher, Oct. 11, 2022, NY Times
>
> President Putin of Russia, in ordering missile strikes on Kyiv and other
> Ukrainian cities, follows a long line of wartime leaders who have sought to
> cow their adversaries by bombing enemy capitals.

> The victorious allies in WWII did emphasize a strategy of heavily bombing
> cities, which is part of why countries have come to repeat this so many
> times since. Cities including Dresden and Tokyo were devastated, killing
> hundreds of thousands of civilians and forcing millions into homelessness.
>
> Still, historians generally now argue that, even if that did play some role
> in exhausting those countries, it was largely because of damage to German
> and Japanese industrial output rather than the terror it caused.

Distortion of history is quite a typical Western occupation since
at least the Age of Enlightenment, so now here's a sly effort to
whitewash the bombing of Dresden and nuking of Japan during the
WW2 combined with an effort to contrast it to the recently changed
tactics of the Russia's military in the Ukraine-related campaign.

One should be less prone to the bogus narratives promoted by the
fake news media (including the NYT) and more attentive to the dry
facts. The NYT article is dated Oct. 11, and by the time it was
known that since Oct. 10 morning, the Russia's military had sent
about 100 or more cruise missiles and dozens of drones intended to
damage various infrastructure facilities related to the regime's
military and industrial output (in response to the sabotage attack
on the Crimean bridge, that besides the damage to the very bridge
also killed four random civilians there).

October 11, midday, Kiev reported that, because of these strikes,
about 120 facilities have been damaged and about two dozen people
killed (without specifying whether they are military or civilians)
<https://archive.is/R4NGd>. Of course, there's nothing positive
in destruction and death, but - on the other hand - how could one
compare it with "killing hundreds of thousands of civilians"?
If the Russian military deliberately targeted civilians than just
a single missile hitting an apartment building properly would be
enough to kill dozens.

One who follows the news might notice the Russian military make
major missile strikes at early morning. And one of the reasons for
that is that it's the time when there's a minimal probability for
random people to be inside or near the targeted facilities. But
even the high precision missiles and drones can produce collateral
damage among civilians. When air defenses try to intercept them,
it's not a binary result (has intercepted or has not intercepted).
An unsuccessful interception attempt can still cause a missile to
deviate and hit something what was not intended. A successful
interception can produce dangerous debris which then fall and hit
something what was not intended. These options aren't the only.

Dozen is comparable to the number of deaths that happened due to
traffic accidents daily throughout the whole Ukraine in 2021. Also,
one American outlet, in August, managed to discover that "the rate
of civilian deaths caused by the war in Ukraine lags behind murder
rates in most major American cities" <https://archive.is/G2LSh>.
Once again, there's nothing positive in any deaths / destructions,
whatever the scale, but on the other hand, the narrative pushed by
the Kiev's and Atlanticist propaganda that the Russian military
seeks to kill civilians (out of desperation and just due to their
genocidal zeal) is clearly bogus and absolutely doesn't hold water
against the known figures and numbers.

"Oleg Smirnov" <os333@netc.eu> wrote:
>> Bombing Kyiv Into Submission? History Says It Won't Work.
>> By Max Fisher, Oct. 11, 2022, NY Times
>>
>> President Putin of Russia, in ordering missile strikes on Kyiv and other
>> Ukrainian cities, follows a long line of wartime leaders who have sought to
>> cow their adversaries by bombing enemy capitals.
>
>> The victorious allies in WWII did emphasize a strategy of heavily bombing
>> cities, which is part of why countries have come to repeat this so many
>> times since. Cities including Dresden and Tokyo were devastated, killing
>> hundreds of thousands of civilians and forcing millions into homelessness.
>>
>> Still, historians generally now argue that, even if that did play some role
>> in exhausting those countries, it was largely because of damage to German
>> and Japanese industrial output rather than the terror it caused.
>> […]
>
> Distortion of history is quite a typical Western occupation since at
> least the Age of Enlightenment, so now here's a sly effort to
> whitewash the bombing of Dresden and nuking of Japan during the
> WW2 combined with an effort to contrast it to the recently changed
> tactics of the Russia's military in the Ukraine-related campaign.
>
> One should be less prone to the bogus narratives promoted by the
> fake news media (including the NYT) and more attentive to the dry
> facts. The NYT article is dated Oct. 11, and by the time it was
> known that since Oct. 10 morning, the Russia's military had sent
> about 100 or more cruise missiles and dozens of drones intended to
> damage various infrastructure facilities related to the regime's
> military and industrial output (in response to the sabotage attack
> on the Crimean bridge, that besides the damage to the very bridge also
> killed four random civilians there).
>
> October 11, midday, Kiev reported that, because of these strikes,
> about 120 facilities have been damaged and about two dozen people
> killed (without specifying whether they are military or civilians)
> <https://archive.is/R4NGd>. Of course, there's nothing positive
> in destruction and death, but - on the other hand - how could one
> compare it with "killing hundreds of thousands of civilians"? If the
> Russian military deliberately targeted civilians than just
> a single missile hitting an apartment building properly would be
> enough to kill dozens.
>
> One who follows the news might notice the Russian military make
> major missile strikes at early morning. And one of the reasons for
> that is that it's the time when there's a minimal probability for
> random people to be inside or near the targeted facilities. But
> even the high precision missiles and drones can produce collateral
> damage among civilians. When air defenses try to intercept them, it's
> not a binary result (has intercepted or has not intercepted). An
> unsuccessful interception attempt can still cause a missile to deviate
> and hit something what was not intended. A successful interception can
> produce dangerous debris which then fall and hit
> something what was not intended. These options aren't the only.
>
> Dozen is comparable to the number of deaths that happened due to
> traffic accidents daily throughout the whole Ukraine in 2021. Also,
> one American outlet, in August, managed to discover that "the rate of
> civilian deaths caused by the war in Ukraine lags behind murder rates
> in most major American cities" <https://archive.is/G2LSh>. Once again,
> there's nothing positive in any deaths / destructions, whatever the
> scale, but on the other hand, the narrative pushed by the Kiev's and
> Atlanticist propaganda that the Russian military
> seeks to kill civilians (out of desperation and just due to their
> genocidal zeal) is clearly bogus and absolutely doesn't hold water
> against the known figures and numbers.

Mistakes in target identification happen too *sometimes* .
See PRC embassy in 1999 [A] and "a few" weddings in Afghanistan.
Do your expect Russia to be better than super high US standards?
Shame on you.

[A] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_bombing_of_the_Chinese_embassy_in_Belgrade

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