Comment by JumpCrisscross

> pager bombings in Lebanon were a masterstroke but a breach of the known rules

What military over the past twenty years had this (or something similar) as an option and didn’t do it because it would be frowned upon?

The truth is nobody has been following the “known rules” since the 90s. Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Transnistrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Hong Kong, Crimea, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Gaza and soon Taiwan. The rules-based international order has been crumbling for years. The only governments still defending it are in Europe.

> they are used as justification for civilian attacks on the west by some unknown group

Who previously would have refrained?