A Different Bombing Doctrine.

Targeting of civilians used to be the Strategic Doctrine of WWII. Civilians were seen as the backbone of arms and logistic supply, therefore in order to win a war it was logical and necessary to destroy the base of the war efforts. Entire cities and whole populations were annihilated in Eastern and Central Europe by the Germans, the Soviets and the Allied forces; Hiroshima and Nagasaki were erased from the face of earth by the American forces.

Today, support of the civilian population is essential to win a war. Individuals and civil society have achieved powers of communication and coordination of action that were unthinkable 50 years ago. The killing of civilians triggers a chain reaction that covers not only the territorial space of a nation but crosses international borders as well. With the coming of Social Networking, killing, torturing and imprisoning  civilians become an anathema of sound strategic policy.

It is because of this that every effort of rogue and totalitarian regimes to suffocate revolutions, such as the Spring Arab uprisings, by assassination, imprisonment and torture are bound to fail. The more a rogue government kills the faster the social reaction  multiply, triggering the cutting off of economic, logistical and moral support: the same parameters that strategic military policy of WWII sought to destroy. Military regimes such as Syria's and Libya's are stuck in mid 20th Century military strategy and ideology, ignorant of the new conditions of mass communication and group coordination.

The following is an example of sound military policy in war. In it, targeting of specific subjects is controlled and limited in such a way that no house in  the surroundings gets affected. Obviously this is one example and not always things goes as well.  This one stands as a model a contemporary correct military thinking and acting.