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In reply to the discussion: Gaza rocket fire kills Israelis [View all]Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I would hope not, but I feel compelled to ask, since alternate realities occasionally appear when discussing this topic.
Now. Do you know what a bomb does? It explodes. An explosion creates a concussive wave; basically the energy released in the explosion is transferred to the surrounding air, which expands very rapidly and very forcefully. This concussive wave carries with it a cloud of shrapnel, both from the bomb casing and the stuff the concussive wave creates and picks up. At the center of the explosion you have the fireball that caused the explosion, a rapid chemical reaction that creates intense heat, setting the surrounding material on fire.
As you may have guessed, concussive forces, shrapnel, and fire have a very deleterious effect on the bodies of human beings (and pretty much everything else that gets in their way, frankly.) This is why they are a favored weapon of both terrorists and regular militaries the world over.
If it were not evident enough, a spherical wall of air carrying high-velocity sharp things with a big fireball at the center is a pretty indiscriminate thing. It doesn't give you a pass if you are young or old, man or woman, Jew or Arab. It's going to hurt, and very possibly kill you just because you are made of meat and sticks of calcium.
When you use weapons like that, in a place like this, in a volume that can be called "massive":
You are knowingly writing off non-targets as "expendables," people who get to die for the crime of proximity.
"Targeting" doesn't really matter much when you are using a weapon that indiscriminately sweeps up non-targets in its killing power.