mdd1,
“2cents, did you support the US invasions of Iraq and Afganistan, the Israeli invasion of Gaza and bombings of Lebanon? Plenty of civilians were killed there etc.”
I disagree that the US and Israeli campaigns are at all comparable to Russia’s invasion and war against Ukraine. The US campaign against Afghanistan was a direct response to the 9/11 terror attack, and Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon was in response to a violent cross-border attack that killed and captured Israeli soldiers, and cross-border shelling. The US war against Iraq had much less justification, though Iraq was failing to cooperate with nuclear inspections. In all three of those campaigns, however, precision munitions were primarily utilized by the US and Israel. These weapons are much more expensive than conventional artillery and are designed to hit the intended target accurately while minimizing collateral damage. The US and Israeli armed forces were also working to limit their attacks to military targets, and took responsibility and corrective actions after mistakes. Israel would even “knock” on buildings it was about to hit, giving advance warning to those inside to get out beforehand. Israeli and US soldiers are well trained, well organized, and have a robust disciplinary system in place where soldiers are accountable for their behavior.
In contrast, Russia has relied primarily on less accurate conventional artillery in urban areas, has applied scorched earth tactics rather than precision strikes against legitimate military targets, has appeared to deliberately target civilian residences, hospitals, and shelters, and has poorly trained and poorly disciplined soldiers that have rampaged against defenseless civilians to vent their wrath over staggeringly high numbers of casualties due to their poor training, discipline, and the tactical decisions of their “superior” officers.