Sure, Shock and Awe was a lot of firepower, but it was strictly a 'military perimeter' engagement. They keeled over backwards not to even scratch a 'civilian' brick or mortar.
I don't recall any cities or towns in Iraq or Afghanistan looking like this...
Dresden
Hamburg
Cologne
“They keeled over backwards not to even scratch a ‘civilian’ brick or mortar.”
I realize Germany and Japan got it relatively worse, almost to the point where it can seem like setting the World Series next to a little league game. But that’s the way war with Third Worlders works. We dropped more ordnance on Vietnam than all theaters of WWII combined, or something like that, without pictures like you posted to show for it. That’s because we weren’t hitting heavy industry or population centers, for the simple reason that, like Iraq and Afghanistan, they didn’t have heavy industry or a dense population.
We continue to rely on Death From Above, as in WWII. It’s just less so, largely because there’s less to destroy. Also because pretty much everyone realizes firebombing tens of thousands of people per run was overkill and unecessary. Still, if you think we didn’t destroy any buildings or kill any civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan, I have a bridge to sell you.