The problem with the "if I can't conquer it, I'll just level it" offense, is that there is very little defense. Everyone is talking about how difficult it is to invade cities. But it's trivial to destroy cities if you have no regard for civilian casualties. The problem now is that the world can't meaningfully intervene because we didn't say beforehand that we would. We should have set up the no-fly zone with western…
Even a destroyed city can fight on - Stalingrad is a great example of that.