RAF resistance to other missions reflected the intellectual appeal of Giulio Douhet's strategic-bombing ideas. Air power seemed to offer a cleaner victory that avoided sending infantry into another attritional ground war. In practice, bombing cities meant inflicting mass destruction without reliably forcing populations or governments to surrender. The Gulf War still required ground forces, while Kosovo provides more complicated evidence. A theory of independent coercion can obscure the logistical and land campaigns that turn damage into political results.
Notable Point · 2:56:24-2:57:54
The promise of a clean war through strategic bombing
Interwar air-power doctrine promised victory without costly ground battles, but bombing cities did not reliably compel surrender and still depended on armies and logistics.