Wanton destruction

Bombing an enemy into submission has been tried time and again over the ages. The practice could be taken back to the Roman ballista, but the explosive and incendiary projectiles used during the siege of Londonderry in 1689 seem to be the first serious attempt at terrorising a civilian population to sap the fighting spirit of combatants. It did not work then, and has not worked since, even the obliteration of major cities by carpet-bombing has not been effective, and the shock and awe of nuclear devices may or may not have been decisive.

The bombing of civilians is a form of hostage taking. If combatants do not surrender, the hostages will die. A method applied explicitly in Nazi-occupied France, without any noticeable effect on resistance activities. However, since the end of the American war in South-East Asia, regimes are bombed not people, and civilian casualties have come to be considered as collateral damage, something beyond the bomber’s control, a sort of accidental fatality. But the fact remains that, if there is no surrender, women and children will be killed and maimed. And, adding insult to injury, they are labelled “human shields”.

See this:http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/01/every-israeli-missile-strike-is-a-war-crime/