Carpet bombing kills civilians. It didn't do much of anything in the past, wars are won by holding territory.
We will win in Iraq by following two tracks. The first is to relentlessly track down and kill or capture every Arab-volunteer, every Baathist hold-out, or anyone else that fights against us. The second track is to build back up the fundamentals of Iraqi society--a safe & secure environment, functioning infrastructure, representative government, and get their oil exports going to crank up their economy. The two track support each other.
I'm glad a lot of you guys advocating killing "families" & civilians aren't in charge--first, you'd go to jail and second, you'd get a lot of good American soldiers killed as they deal with the fall-out of such idiotic decisions.
Yes, carpet bombing does kill civilians...I worded that stupidly.
As far as it not doing anything in the past...two devastating nukes in Japan made them unconditionally surrender. Massive overwhelming power did it. The Japanese had far more balls than these pansy terrorists. They were a worthy adversary. Two very large bombs were the culmination for them to say "we had enough."
Germany had no fight left by the time allied forces made it there. The only reason that Germany did not surrender earlier is because Hitler was stil alive and his generals were scared. Germany was absolutely devastated by bombing. They didn't want anymore.
Carpet bombing of Hanoi was the only time we got the Vietnamese to the peace table.
I don't how how you say it did nothing in the past. Yes, you have to stand on the ground to hold it, but carpet bombing has proven its effectiveness...strategic strikes in and of themselves have not to the extent that unrestricted bombing has against a large force. Panama and Grenada don't stand out on the level of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Wars are won by pounding the enemy into submission and then holding the territory.