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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   719 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 2, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Among the military sites are command headquarters and radar installations, while civilian targets include power plants and major transportation infrastructures like tunnels and bridges. The documents indicate that of the 160 targets, 82 are military installations, with the remainder being civilian infrastructure.

I am pretty sure power plants, tunnels and bridges are not described as "civilian targets" when America or its allies bomb such structures, which I'm pretty sure we have in many, many previous conflicts.

Good point, thanks

De nada, and sorry if the above came across as snippy. I really enjoy these posts.

Bridges and tunnels are definitely legit military targets and always have been, same for railways, depots, ports, etc. Power plants are trickier since many of them serve predominantly civilian population, but e.g. in Yemen they were attacked (of course, Yemen has targeted Israel civilian targets many times, so they do not have much standing to complain). In general, since the advent of the total war concept, the industry - power, manufacturing, warehouses, supply routes, etc. - has been consistently targeted as part of the war. Russia's war in Ukraine is a bit unique as they are trying to pretend they are not waging a real war but just "special operation" to "liberate" their Ukrainian brothers from the clutches of the Nazis who they elected, but if we don't take this bullshit seriously, targeting manufacturing and energy infrastructure seem to be a pretty common thing in war. And certainly in the event of "real" war there's no surprise they have plans for that, any serious army would.

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