History Shows that Terror Bombing of Civilians Not Only Immoral but Ineffective, Sonin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 1 – Terror bombing against civilians, like the campaign Vladimir Putin is now conducting against the Ukrainian people, is not only immoral but an ineffective strategy, Konstantin Sonin says. To put in simplest terms, “this is a crime that doesn’t work” and quite often proves counterproductive.

            The Russian economist at the University of Chicago says that what Putin is doing won’t give him a victory but instead shows he is “a maniac living in his own special world,” someone who “cannot stop the war … because without it, he will immediately disappear” (t.me/ksonin/828 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/terror-protiv-mirnyh-zhitelej-ne-rabotaet).

            International experience going back to World War II and the famous US Strategic Bombing Survey shows, Sonin continues, that bombing may have an impact on infrastructure but it won’t lead to the victory of those who engage in it unless it is accompanied by military victories in the field.

            In their absence, terror bombing is more than likely to backfire, increasing the resistance of its targets rather than breaking their will. That is something Moscow should have learned but clearly didn’t from recent Russian experience in Chechnya when Russian terror bombing of Grozny “did not lower support” for the Ichkeria government but instead increased it.