Collateral Damage? Nyet! Beneficial Extras!

[toad]

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/syria/a ... 51011.aspx
Apparently trying to hide from Russian air strikes in hospitals, mosques, and among the civilian population doesn't work.
Grim but hilarious. IIRC it was Stalin who said, "If a man is causing a problem, no man, no problem." It looks like the Russians really, really, don't give a ding if some newspaper wiener call them brutal, but of course you don't hear much from the lame stream press about this.

[HTRN]

It looks like the Russians really, really, don't give a ding if some newspaper wiener call them brutal, but of course you don't hear much from the lame stream press about this.

Oh they care. They just throw them in prison on a variety of ridiculous charges, if it ever gets printed. The State wholly owns the Russian Press...

[randy]

Russia says it is sending only “volunteers”. This is a policy adopted in [strike]Ukraine[/strike] Spain in the 1930's

Fixed it for them

[PawPaw]

Who was it that said "War should be hell, lest we become too fond of it."?

We (meaning the US) used to not care so much about collateral damage. How many thousands of homes and businesses did we rubble during WWII in France, Germany, and Japan? As long as there was a military objective, screw the civilians. Ask the residents of Dresden and Hiroshima about collaateral damage.

I don't necessarily agree with Putin's stance in the Middle East, but it looks like they're doing it exactly right. If the occasional hospital or mosque gets mistakenly bombed, as long as there is a military objective, it goes in the collateral column.

[Weetabix]

They need to use unexpended ordinance on mosques, not just bomb them accidentally. "Mosque" is code for "FOB."

[308Mike]

IIRC, Hiroshima (the ENTIRE city) was a legitimate military target since the Japanese military disbursed their military manufacturing throughout the civilian population, reasoning that keeping it in large identifiable factories made targeting them far too easy for the Americans.

[Jered]

Hiding military targets in a mosque or a hospital is a war crime.

[PawPaw]

Hiding military targets in a mosque or a hospital is a war crime.

It also makes the mosque or hospital a legitimate military target, which is why it was forbidden under applicable teaties. I don't think ISIS/Al-Queda/Hamas, etc, etc, are signatory to any of those treaties, so observing the formalities is not required.

If you want your sick and wounded to be treated with mercy and gentleness, (ie, we won't bomb the roof off of it,) then don't store military goods in the hospital.

And yeah, these days a mosque should be considered an FOB.

[Termite]

IIRC,

In WWII, the 8th Air Force actually made an effort to avoid bombing several churches in Germany(Lutherian and Roman-Catholic churches... IIRC) that had historical value.

[PawPaw]

IIRC,

In WWII, the 8th Air Force actually made an effort to avoid bombing several churches in Germany(Lutherian and Roman-Catholic churches... IIRC) that had historical value.

I'm told that the 11th AF also avoided a huge factory in Cologne (Ford-Werke), not because it was a Ford factory, but because they wanted to use the building during the occupation that was o follow the war. When you move in to occupy, you need some buildings with roofs to keep the rain off the victorious occupiers.