Why Militaries Must Destroy Cities to Save Them
John Spencer | November 8, 2018
“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.â€
That’s how a US Army major during the Vietnam war described the decision to use massive amounts of firepower, to include aerial bombs and artillery, while attacking approximately 2,500 Viet Cong who were besieging the city of Ben Tre and its surrounding villages. Vietnamese provincial authorities assessed that 85 percent of the city was destroyed and up to 1,000 civilians were killed in the operation.
That contention didn’t only apply to Ben Tre, though. The military continues to struggle with built-up environments with civilians present—a struggle that grows dramatically alongside the scale of the town or city in question. The fact that “it becomes necessary to destroy a city to save it†highlights the destructive tactics that have almost always been required to liberate a city from enemy forces that choose to defend in urban areas. The recent battles in Aleppo, Mosul, and Raqqa show how this reality persists.
https://mwi.usma.edu/militaries-must-destroy-cities-save/
