3 ms·

Carpet bombing of the scale of WW2 is not on the table for any modern war. The bombing campaigns of both Allies and Axis included thousands of bombers, flying t

by glogla 5y ago

Carpet bombing of the scale of WW2 is not on the table for any modern war. The bombing campaigns of both Allies and Axis included thousands of bombers, flying thousands of sorties per month. Just London during the Blitz was hit by 18000 tons of bombs. Nobody in the world has that number of planes, crew or even bombs anymore. And any kind of large-scale bombing in a contested airspace is a very bad idea. Same with artillery. Russian Grads are powerful, but they have range of less than 50 kilometers. Once they get in place, they can fire (IIRC) three times before needing new reload which is literally a truckload. Meaning you need surviving Grad 50 km form something you want to destroy and a secure supply line, otherwise that reload will never arrive. Non-rocket artillery has generally more compact ammo but shorter range, so it has similar problems. That puts me in opinion of "Russians couldn't destroy everything even if they wanted to". That of course doesn't necessarily means they want to - but it also should refute the argument "they could destroy everything but didn't, so they are nice people" I've seen a few times. EDIT: TL;DR: "why didn't Russians carpet bomb Ukraine?" "with what?" EDIT2: I looked it up, and Russia has about 25 of their Tu-160 strategic bombers. Just the one S-300 air defense system that Slovakia gave Ukraine had 46 missiles on it - in addition to possibly hundreds that Ukraine already had. Carpet bombing is completely unrealistic at this point.

alienicecream 5y ago
The technical feasibility of carpet bombing or artillery reloading is not really the point. The Russians by most accounts have the ability to level cities if they wanted to, and many people arguing that they are unreconstructed barbarians point to what they did in Grozny as an example. So the question is why aren't they doing that in Kharkov or Chernigov?
- glogla 5y ago
  - alienicecream 5y ago
- eternalban 5y ago
  I am not in a position to know what precisely has transpired in Ukraine, but your comments are proposing either-or alternatives which are incomplete. Selective, limited, terror tactics against a civilian population can help an occupying army by cowing them into submission. Given the "fog of war", all sort of plausible denials can address PR fallout from the few, selective, events. Carpet bombing may cow the population but there is no room for denail. This calculus holds true for any invading army, including Russians in Ukraine. Grozny was carpet bombed because Chechens are not ethnic Russians and if they had finally managed to get rid of Russians from their homeland, the rest of the ethnic patchwork that is the Russian federation would have fallen apart. I don't know about barbarians, but Russians constantly moan and groan about being invaded and being insecure but as far I can tell they are just as brutal and self justified as other empire minded nations. The B-Team of wanna be overlords. That's their secret shame, imho. That "Anglos" have this game figured out and they keep failing at it.
  - glogla 5y ago
    > I don't know about barbarians Here's a nice article: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-rape-russian-soldier-wife-bykovsky/31805486.html https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-rape-russian-soldier-wife-by... > During the call, which Ukrainian security services in the Kherson region in the country’s south said they intercepted before publishing it earlier this month, a woman can be heard giving permission to a man to rape Ukrainian women. > “Yes, I allow it. Just wear protection,” the woman says between laughs.
    - alienicecream 5y ago

by glogla 5y ago

alienicecream 5y ago

The technical feasibility of carpet bombing or artillery reloading is not really the point. The Russians by most accounts have the ability to level cities if they wanted to, and many people arguing that they are unreconstructed barbarians point to what they did in Grozny as an example. So the question is why aren't they doing that in Kharkov or Chernigov?

glogla 5y ago
- alienicecream 5y ago
eternalban 5y ago
I am not in a position to know what precisely has transpired in Ukraine, but your comments are proposing either-or alternatives which are incomplete. Selective, limited, terror tactics against a civilian population can help an occupying army by cowing them into submission. Given the "fog of war", all sort of plausible denials can address PR fallout from the few, selective, events. Carpet bombing may cow the population but there is no room for denail. This calculus holds true for any invading army, including Russians in Ukraine. Grozny was carpet bombed because Chechens are not ethnic Russians and if they had finally managed to get rid of Russians from their homeland, the rest of the ethnic patchwork that is the Russian federation would have fallen apart. I don't know about barbarians, but Russians constantly moan and groan about being invaded and being insecure but as far I can tell they are just as brutal and self justified as other empire minded nations. The B-Team of wanna be overlords. That's their secret shame, imho. That "Anglos" have this game figured out and they keep failing at it.
- glogla 5y ago
  > I don't know about barbarians Here's a nice article: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-rape-russian-soldier-wife-bykovsky/31805486.html https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-rape-russian-soldier-wife-by... > During the call, which Ukrainian security services in the Kherson region in the country’s south said they intercepted before publishing it earlier this month, a woman can be heard giving permission to a man to rape Ukrainian women. > “Yes, I allow it. Just wear protection,” the woman says between laughs.
  - alienicecream 5y ago