In warfare, there is a longstanding perception that the use of widespread violence against civilians makes them more likely to capitulate. Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, whose goal was to make wars as short as possible, prescribed the use of terror against civilian populations as a method to achieve quick victory. This idea, though widespread, is not often accurate.
In the first world war, Germany shot civilians in large numbers during their invasion and occupation of Belgium. This not only did not break the spirit of the populace, but rather hardened their opposition. More recently, Russia has repeatedly and deliberately bombarded apartments, shops, churches, hospitals and other civilian areas in Ukraine, all to no avail for their war effort, both materially and psychologically.
Today, it seems that the only things guaranteed from this kind of behavior are increased hostility from (1) the population being victimized and (2) the larger world of people and nations watching the display. Even before the Geneva Conventions and the so-called “rules-based order” that we currently live in, targeting civilians was widely unpopular, if unfortunately commonplace. Rather than cerebral realistic strategy, such actions can only come from a place of self-defeating barbarism.
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