Why is it that collateral damage is so heavy in times of war? Has no one, not even the great Sun Tzu ever pondered about the horrors visited on the non-combatants in battles not of their choosing or making?

In fact, many thinkers, military strategists and humanists have thought just such dark thoughts and come up with ideas that seem to be so inapplicable today. I was perusing a lovely book that came quite close to what I feel war should be confined to. Mr. Ramo, in his new book, The Age of the Unthinkable, writes quite well and really puts out interesting and bold ideas. He does seem to be a rather serious fan of Sun Tzu and sometimes seems to elaborate on themes a little less than we want him to. However, his idea of using war as a nudging device to get people to understand your point of view or else....
is not that bad an idea.
Think of Afghanistan now for a moment. There is no need to set drones onto the population in the hopes that the Taliban will be cowed by them. If we were to engage them in other ways like stopping the supply of milk to certain parts of the country until certain demands were met, we would have a better and less deadly weapon. The harvest of poppy is very useful to them. I cannot believe that we can't do a deal with Iran and stop that supply chain or significantly hinder it so that these boys don't get their toys(guns and hashish).
Instead we go on bombing in an act of wanton stupidity....