Quote:
Originally Posted by Etzell
So if there's no one in the city when you strike, and there aren't any buildings left... What, exactly, have you taken?
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The goal of combat operation isn't always body count. Taking or destorying a city is good move for avoiding urban, room-to-room fighting. Assualting a city is very expensive in terms of time and manpower. The assulting army need to devote lots of resources to eliminate just a few defenders hiding in buildings. If you have superior firepower on your side, then you would prefer in an open battle field where your foes can't hide from airstrikes. Similarly, you don't mind fighting in the woods if you have napalm at your disposal. But streeting fighter put both sides on relatively equal footing.
Sometimes, killing insurgeats may seem a good trade for civilian lives. But Iraq has taught us that hitting civilians simply breeds vengeance, which in turn leads to more recruits for the insurgency.