Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Literally never in my life have I heard someone suggest that the problem with the Vietnam war was that the Vietnamese weren’t wiped off the earth.
wtf
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There's a difference between totally defeating an enemy militarily and wiping the population off the face of the map, he was clearly referring to the former, as he also cited Germany and Japan - two countries that were totally defeated yet didn't have their populations wiped out.
In the case of the Vietnam War there's an argument to be made (although not one that I accept) that if the US had engaged in unrestrained bombing of North Vietnamese infrastructure they could have destroyed the North's ability to sustain it's forces in combat and thus would have won the war. For example, the US looked at bombing damns and dykes in order to disrupt Vietnam's food supply but largely opted not to do it (for reasons far more complicated than the wiki below outlines).
That's an example of how US restraint may have lead to their defeat in Vietnam. You can find similar, although smaller scale, examples of western military restraint impeding military effectiveness in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In this case, when the IDF, fighting in an urban area that Hamas has spent years preparing for a fight, opts to not strike targets with AirPower, artillery, and other indirect fires, it puts it's soldiers at much greater risk because infantry clearing buildings in urban areas are extremely vulnerable to ambush. If you're an Israeli commander, why shouldn't you destroy a dual use target (which a building becomes when it's used for military purposes, including as a spot for Hamas fighters to attack from) via an airstrike when clearing it using 'more humane' methods puts your troops at extreme risk? Especially when Hamas started this war and you need to keep as many of your troops alive for the next one.
That's one specific example of why military people will tell you, if you're going to go engage in a war, you go all the way with everything you have, otherwise you're just prolonging the bloodshed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propos...0River%20delta.