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> The US and Israel have been carpet bombing Iran No they haven't. The US started phasing out carpet bombing[0] half a century ago. You discredit yourself by m

> The US and Israel have been carpet bombing Iran No they haven't. The US started phasing out carpet bombing[0] half a century ago. You discredit yourself by making such trivially falsifiable assertions. The US and Israel use precision strikes. It is why the ratio of targets per sortie is by far the highest ever recorded in a major conflict. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet_bombing

GordonS 7mo ago
Look at the videos coming out of Iran - civilian infrastructure and residences are clearly being targeted. Some unexploded bombs have been found that lack a JDAM guidance package. And regardless of the USA, Israel is most certainly not above carpet bombing civilians.
- magic_hamster 7mo ago
  [flagged]
  - GordonS 7mo ago
    Be serious, look at what has been done to Gaza. Israel absolutely sets out to murder civilians, en-masse.
    - magic_hamster 7mo ago
      [flagged]
      - srean 7mo ago
        https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Israeli-Executions-of-Palestinian-Aid-Workers.pdf https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads...
      - Hikikomori 7mo ago
        All the children shot in the head as reported by western doctors working there?
        jiggawatts 7mo ago
        I looked into that one, because it was so outlandish but repeated by multiple sources and reported by reputable journalists. The original reporting was carefully phrased to make it sound like IDF soldiers were "sniping" little children, taking careful aim and deliberately shooting them in the head, which is... monstrous. Where this narrative starts to breaks down is that snipers don't aim for the head, because it's too small a target. Additionally, most of the reports mentioned that the children were shot "in the street" in scuffles with ordinary army grunts, so where were these mysterious "child-murdering snipers"? How were they so reliably hitting small moving targets in the head? It turns out that this phenomenon was a product of Gaza's demographics combined with survivorship bias. Half of Gaza's population is under 18! Teenagers are technically "children", but they're out in the streets throwing rocks or whatever at IDF troops, and get shot at in return. The ones that get hit by half a dozen rounds to the chest die on the spot and aren't taken to hospital because obviously, hospitals are for people that can be saved, not the dead. All of the reports of "children getting shot in the head" were coming from surgeons in hospitals, but they were seeing a biased sample: victims that only got hit once had a chance to survive. Similarly, a minor head-wound isn't instantly lethal, whereas a single round centre-mass typically is. So they were seeing victims with single shots to the head instead of multiple to the chest. They then cooked up a narrative that would explain what they were seeing, not realising that the cause wasn't "evil child murdering snipers", but simply a statistically biased view of a war that is not especially more unethical than any other armed conflict.
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        Oh, that's ok then. /s ffs
        jiggawatts 7mo ago
        War makes people angry, and angry people are trivially swayed by propaganda. For example, there's thousands of people still screeching online that the US deliberately bombed little girls in Iran. No, they hit a girls school by accident, it used to be an IRGC military base building and is surrounded by IRGC buildings! I don't condone Israel's actions in Gaza, nor do I condone the US/Israeli attacks on Iran. Having said that, it's important in a war -- irrespective of what side one is supporting or opposing -- not to believe exaggerations or outright lies. War is bad enough, we don't have to sprinkle imaginary horrors on top of the real ones! In the worst case, if too many people spout transparently obvious propaganda, then that discounts the believability of the true horrors. This is most obvious today with the "that's just a fake AI video" retorts, but before it was "fake news", or whatever. Diluting the truth harms it.
    - flyinglizard 7mo ago
      [flagged]
      - user3939382 7mo ago
        “ The bombing, combined with other simultaneous Israeli military actions in Gaza, killed at least 68,000 Palestinians (mostly civilians), which is between 3% and 4% of the total population of the territory, and damaged or destroyed Palestinian schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and other civilian infrastructure including refugee camps.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_bombing_of_the_Gaza_Strip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_bombing_of_the_Gaza_St... You can play word games all you like.
        flyinglizard 7mo ago
        In October 7th 2023, about 11% of the residents of Kibbutz Be'eri - 130 out of 1200 - were murdered, raped, tortures and/or kidnapped into Gaza: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%27eri_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%27eri_massacre
        user3939382 7mo ago
        translation: Uh oh, he has irrefutable evidence everything I just argued for 5 replies was a lie. Quick! Change the subject to “two wrongs make a right” I know, I’ll equate 120 people with tens of thousands of murdered children.
        cindyllm 7mo ago
        [dead]
  - thunky 7mo ago
    Holy shit what rock are you living under? Israel is villifying itself just fine.
    - magic_hamster 7mo ago
      I argue that anyone saying this is watching too many TikTok videos and not really familiar with what's going on. Without going into too much detail, my position and line of work means that I have to keep very informed on the middle east and so far I've seen a lot of hatred, and very little factual basis. In fact every single person I personally talked to was very uninformed on these matters which is fine, as long as you accept it and don't form extreme opinions on entire countries.
      - srean 7mo ago
        https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Israeli-Executions-of-Palestinian-Aid-Workers.pdf https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads...
        magic_hamster 7mo ago
        I'd appreciate if you didn't spam the same link all over my comments, once is enough. And as for "forensic architecture", please visit their website and go over who these people are - especially the Palestinians from Ramallah and self proclaimed "activists". This is by no means an unbiased organization.
        srean 7mo ago
        Then don't go asking for a report in all of your comments on this page where you have, once is enough. Forensic Architecture is one of the most reputed organizations for this line of work. Their reports are read with great deal of respect here on HN and they cover more than this conflict. If they don't count as credible and competent, nothing will satisfy you -- the moral equivalent of covering one's eyes and ears. So I will appreciate if you stop this sham of yours of asking for a citation. While you are at it, do better than ad hominem. I am still waiting to hear an argument about the content of the extensive and methodical report. For HN audience, the report was discussed on HN here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136179 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136179
  - srean 7mo ago
    https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Israeli-Executions-of-Palestinian-Aid-Workers.pdf https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads...
- jandrewrogers 7mo ago
  Again, that's not "carpet bombing". Carpet bombing requires a type of aircraft that Israel doesn't have (though the US does). Why would you expect a precision bomb to have a JDAM package? That is not the only type of guidance package. In fact, most of the footage I've seen (largely Israeli) has clearly been laser-guided bombs. They aren't the same thing, and the latter is more precise than JDAM in any case. Use of precision-guided bombs in a city is not "carpet bombing".
  - GordonS 7mo ago
    Even if their actions might not precisely meet some dictionary definition of "carpet bombing", you know well what I meant - civilians and civilian infrastructure are being deliberately targeted with complete disregard for loss of life and environmental consequences.
    - jiggawatts 7mo ago
      That’s called war. You’re parroting IRGC propaganda, which is why people are arguing with you. “We are innocent civilians and the Israelis are carpet bombing us”… said by the people that funded October 7th and killed more of their own people than the Israeli bombs did. Iran’s government has been violently belligerent for decades, and continues to this day to bomb its Arab neighbours including hitting their civilians! They don’t get to whine about the morality of civilian versus military deaths.
      - GordonS 7mo ago
        Iran has absolutely not been violent for decades. And they don't "continue" to bomb their Arab neighbours - they are only bombing them now because they allowed their land to be used to attack Iran. What exactly are Iran supposed to do here? Just give up, allow their country to be infested with ISIS and Al Qaeda, allow their country balkanised, their citizens massacred indiscriminatly?
    - idop 7mo ago
      You meant to lie, and you did lie, and you continue to lie. Standard TikTok rage where words no longer have meaning, reality must be rejected, and any headline is true even if the article directly negates it or there's no source, so long as it makes Israel look bad. I swear, it's almost as if the anti-Israel mob _wants_ it to be true.
TheAlchemist 7mo ago
While I somewhat agree, you should also look at the results of those precision strikes. Usually, when they kill a senior Iranian officer sleeping in his appartment, they level the building or at lest blow up several adjacent units, probably killing at last 10 innocent people.
- jandrewrogers 7mo ago
  That's an inherent limitation of precision strikes. The objective is minimizing the collateral damage required to achieve the objective, not avoiding it entirely. Even the various explosive-free precision-guided munitions the US uses have a non-zero damage radius. One can argue whether or not it is a good idea for the bombs to be flying around in the first place, but there is no version of physics that allows anyone to avoid collateral damage as a practical matter.
  - breppp 7mo ago
    This one from the 12 day war did https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Iran-scientist-strike.jpg?w=1235&h=694 https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Iran-scientis...
  - TheAlchemist 7mo ago
    I know. I'm just saying that the way we talk about 'precision strikes' in the west, make one feel like only the target is eliminated, while in reality we usually blow half of the building the target was in, along with all the people. I would actually be interested by a poll on what people in the US think about how many innocent people are killed in a precision or elimination strike on average - I bet it would be something like less than 1.
- jiggawatts 7mo ago
  Which is not “carpet bombing”. Use words and phrases correctly, or expect an argument.
  - pcthrowaway 7mo ago

GordonS 7mo ago

Look at the videos coming out of Iran - civilian infrastructure and residences are clearly being targeted. Some unexploded bombs have been found that lack a JDAM guidance package. And regardless of the USA, Israel is most certainly not above carpet bombing civilians.

magic_hamster 7mo ago
[flagged]
- GordonS 7mo ago
  Be serious, look at what has been done to Gaza. Israel absolutely sets out to murder civilians, en-masse.
  - magic_hamster 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    - srean 7mo ago
      https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Israeli-Executions-of-Palestinian-Aid-Workers.pdf https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads...
    - Hikikomori 7mo ago
      All the children shot in the head as reported by western doctors working there?
      - jiggawatts 7mo ago
        I looked into that one, because it was so outlandish but repeated by multiple sources and reported by reputable journalists. The original reporting was carefully phrased to make it sound like IDF soldiers were "sniping" little children, taking careful aim and deliberately shooting them in the head, which is... monstrous. Where this narrative starts to breaks down is that snipers don't aim for the head, because it's too small a target. Additionally, most of the reports mentioned that the children were shot "in the street" in scuffles with ordinary army grunts, so where were these mysterious "child-murdering snipers"? How were they so reliably hitting small moving targets in the head? It turns out that this phenomenon was a product of Gaza's demographics combined with survivorship bias. Half of Gaza's population is under 18! Teenagers are technically "children", but they're out in the streets throwing rocks or whatever at IDF troops, and get shot at in return. The ones that get hit by half a dozen rounds to the chest die on the spot and aren't taken to hospital because obviously, hospitals are for people that can be saved, not the dead. All of the reports of "children getting shot in the head" were coming from surgeons in hospitals, but they were seeing a biased sample: victims that only got hit once had a chance to survive. Similarly, a minor head-wound isn't instantly lethal, whereas a single round centre-mass typically is. So they were seeing victims with single shots to the head instead of multiple to the chest. They then cooked up a narrative that would explain what they were seeing, not realising that the cause wasn't "evil child murdering snipers", but simply a statistically biased view of a war that is not especially more unethical than any other armed conflict.
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        Oh, that's ok then. /s ffs
        jiggawatts 7mo ago
        War makes people angry, and angry people are trivially swayed by propaganda. For example, there's thousands of people still screeching online that the US deliberately bombed little girls in Iran. No, they hit a girls school by accident, it used to be an IRGC military base building and is surrounded by IRGC buildings! I don't condone Israel's actions in Gaza, nor do I condone the US/Israeli attacks on Iran. Having said that, it's important in a war -- irrespective of what side one is supporting or opposing -- not to believe exaggerations or outright lies. War is bad enough, we don't have to sprinkle imaginary horrors on top of the real ones! In the worst case, if too many people spout transparently obvious propaganda, then that discounts the believability of the true horrors. This is most obvious today with the "that's just a fake AI video" retorts, but before it was "fake news", or whatever. Diluting the truth harms it.
  - flyinglizard 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    - user3939382 7mo ago
      “ The bombing, combined with other simultaneous Israeli military actions in Gaza, killed at least 68,000 Palestinians (mostly civilians), which is between 3% and 4% of the total population of the territory, and damaged or destroyed Palestinian schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and other civilian infrastructure including refugee camps.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_bombing_of_the_Gaza_Strip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_bombing_of_the_Gaza_St... You can play word games all you like.
      - flyinglizard 7mo ago
        In October 7th 2023, about 11% of the residents of Kibbutz Be'eri - 130 out of 1200 - were murdered, raped, tortures and/or kidnapped into Gaza: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%27eri_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%27eri_massacre
        user3939382 7mo ago
        translation: Uh oh, he has irrefutable evidence everything I just argued for 5 replies was a lie. Quick! Change the subject to “two wrongs make a right” I know, I’ll equate 120 people with tens of thousands of murdered children.
        cindyllm 7mo ago
        [dead]
- thunky 7mo ago
  Holy shit what rock are you living under? Israel is villifying itself just fine.
  - magic_hamster 7mo ago
    I argue that anyone saying this is watching too many TikTok videos and not really familiar with what's going on. Without going into too much detail, my position and line of work means that I have to keep very informed on the middle east and so far I've seen a lot of hatred, and very little factual basis. In fact every single person I personally talked to was very uninformed on these matters which is fine, as long as you accept it and don't form extreme opinions on entire countries.
    - srean 7mo ago
      https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Israeli-Executions-of-Palestinian-Aid-Workers.pdf https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads...
      - magic_hamster 7mo ago
        I'd appreciate if you didn't spam the same link all over my comments, once is enough. And as for "forensic architecture", please visit their website and go over who these people are - especially the Palestinians from Ramallah and self proclaimed "activists". This is by no means an unbiased organization.
        srean 7mo ago
        Then don't go asking for a report in all of your comments on this page where you have, once is enough. Forensic Architecture is one of the most reputed organizations for this line of work. Their reports are read with great deal of respect here on HN and they cover more than this conflict. If they don't count as credible and competent, nothing will satisfy you -- the moral equivalent of covering one's eyes and ears. So I will appreciate if you stop this sham of yours of asking for a citation. While you are at it, do better than ad hominem. I am still waiting to hear an argument about the content of the extensive and methodical report. For HN audience, the report was discussed on HN here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136179 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136179
- srean 7mo ago
  https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Israeli-Executions-of-Palestinian-Aid-Workers.pdf https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads...
jandrewrogers 7mo ago
Again, that's not "carpet bombing". Carpet bombing requires a type of aircraft that Israel doesn't have (though the US does). Why would you expect a precision bomb to have a JDAM package? That is not the only type of guidance package. In fact, most of the footage I've seen (largely Israeli) has clearly been laser-guided bombs. They aren't the same thing, and the latter is more precise than JDAM in any case. Use of precision-guided bombs in a city is not "carpet bombing".
- GordonS 7mo ago
  Even if their actions might not precisely meet some dictionary definition of "carpet bombing", you know well what I meant - civilians and civilian infrastructure are being deliberately targeted with complete disregard for loss of life and environmental consequences.
  - jiggawatts 7mo ago
    That’s called war. You’re parroting IRGC propaganda, which is why people are arguing with you. “We are innocent civilians and the Israelis are carpet bombing us”… said by the people that funded October 7th and killed more of their own people than the Israeli bombs did. Iran’s government has been violently belligerent for decades, and continues to this day to bomb its Arab neighbours including hitting their civilians! They don’t get to whine about the morality of civilian versus military deaths.
    - GordonS 7mo ago
      Iran has absolutely not been violent for decades. And they don't "continue" to bomb their Arab neighbours - they are only bombing them now because they allowed their land to be used to attack Iran. What exactly are Iran supposed to do here? Just give up, allow their country to be infested with ISIS and Al Qaeda, allow their country balkanised, their citizens massacred indiscriminatly?
  - idop 7mo ago
    You meant to lie, and you did lie, and you continue to lie. Standard TikTok rage where words no longer have meaning, reality must be rejected, and any headline is true even if the article directly negates it or there's no source, so long as it makes Israel look bad. I swear, it's almost as if the anti-Israel mob _wants_ it to be true.

TheAlchemist 7mo ago

While I somewhat agree, you should also look at the results of those precision strikes. Usually, when they kill a senior Iranian officer sleeping in his appartment, they level the building or at lest blow up several adjacent units, probably killing at last 10 innocent people.

jandrewrogers 7mo ago
That's an inherent limitation of precision strikes. The objective is minimizing the collateral damage required to achieve the objective, not avoiding it entirely. Even the various explosive-free precision-guided munitions the US uses have a non-zero damage radius. One can argue whether or not it is a good idea for the bombs to be flying around in the first place, but there is no version of physics that allows anyone to avoid collateral damage as a practical matter.
- breppp 7mo ago
  This one from the 12 day war did https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Iran-scientist-strike.jpg?w=1235&h=694 https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Iran-scientis...
- TheAlchemist 7mo ago
  I know. I'm just saying that the way we talk about 'precision strikes' in the west, make one feel like only the target is eliminated, while in reality we usually blow half of the building the target was in, along with all the people. I would actually be interested by a poll on what people in the US think about how many innocent people are killed in a precision or elimination strike on average - I bet it would be something like less than 1.
jiggawatts 7mo ago
Which is not “carpet bombing”. Use words and phrases correctly, or expect an argument.
- pcthrowaway 7mo ago