The Crusades

[Myrtle]

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For part of WWII, this claim was regrettably true (as it was for every other major combatant). For any other time, not so much.

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Japan was the only instance I could think of as well. "integral part" of strategy seems very unfair.

Tuco.

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The firebombings of Dresden and Hamburg seem to have been designed to inflict lots of civillian casualties as well, and IIRC, killed more civillians than the nuclear bombs in Japan.

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FWIW,the firebombing of Tokyo prior to Hiroshima & Nagasaki killed a minimum of 120,000 Japanese civilians.

Attacking civilian populations was a poitical decision carried out by the military of most of the major combatants of WWII.....Germany, Japan, Russia, England and the USA.