I am aware of that. My point is that if we did things even remotely approaching what the Russians are doing, there would be mass cries, moral posturings, condemnations, and protests throughout the world.
Russia does this stuff and hardly anyone notices. Russia flattened Grozny nobody complained. We sacrifice soldiers in order to prevent unecessary collatoral damage in taking out the cancer of Fallujah, and we are decried throughout the world (and at home) as oppressive occupiers.
Actually, Council of Europe complained quite a bit about Chechnya, but went away after Putin basically ignored them.
No less than what the Federal army did to Atlanta.
Actually, the Chechin wars are the most covered wars, short of Iraq. There are millions of hit pieces out there. The difference is, the Russian government just ignores them and does what's needed and most Russian people understand that, having been the victims of terror for 15 years now.