Powel doctrine

Last December Trump said we should kill the families of ISIS members and this was met with a gasp of horror and many pointed out that this was against the Geneva Convention rules. I bring this up because it is illustrative of our view of war and how this has changed over the years. The last formally declared war was WW 2 and during that war the US deliberately targeted civilians by fire-bombing cities in Germany and Japan. The idea was to kill as many women and children as possible to demoralize the enemy and win the war. Since WW 2 military engagements have been conducted on a limited bases avoiding all-out war. Korea ended in a stalemate at the 38th parallel as Truman stopped Macarthur from going into North Korea. In Viet Nam Johnson waited for ten years before he allowed the bombing of Hanoi. In Afghanistan and Iraq the military has been limited in the kind of action allowed. A good example happened with ISIS and Iraqi oil. ISIS has been transporting oil by truck for over a year and finally the US decided to start bombing these trucks that were easy targets moving across the open desert. When asked about the delay the administration said they were fearful of killing the drivers. The first gulf war where Kuwait asked the US for help followed the Powell doctrine which states that you go in with overwhelming force, defeat the enemy quickly and get out. The US bombed Iraqi forces for 100 days during which time they neutralized the Iraqi air force. Then a force of 500,000 US military fully equipped invaded and it was all over in 100 hours. The US then left following the UN dictate that they not attack Saddam. If the next president follows the Powel doctrine, ISIS in Iraq and Syria can be destroyed in short order but there will be civilian casualties. That happens in war.