this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2026
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Exactly, to spread terror. You've correctly identified that motive is a part of the definition. Congrats.
The US is chiefly concerned with fighting militants for material strategic goals, and has laws against targetting civilians.
ISIS is chiefly concerned with butchering anyone, regardless of civilian status, to gain, and maintain through fear, power in a region.
Hmm, who does that remind me of? Israel? Yes, that shining beacon of democracy that gets almost unlimited weapons of mass destruction from the US to kill a majority of unarmed civilians.
And btw, the US may have "laws against targetting civilians" but it doesn't mean these laws are followed. There are ample records of this.
Ample records of disproportionate strikes? Yes. Ample records of targetting civilians? No. Those rules of engagement are absolutely followed, and we know this from the thousands of instances where strikes were called off because civilian presence in the area changed. They keep endless records because they are accountable to Congress.
It's a moot point when comparing America to ISIS because terrorists definitionally don't have any concept of proportionality because killing civilians is the goal.
I don't really care to argue I/P, that conflict is forever fucked and nobody knows anything about it.
I do believe you have not looked deeply enough into what you say. It's nice though to have such an unflinching belief in the ethics of the US (and most) military.
There are many of those. For a start, the IDF sets 'kill lines' and declares (without evidence) that anyone who crosses them is a 'terrorist' even if it is where they lived for years: https://israelpalestinenews.org/no-civilians-idf-soldiers-reveal-killings-lawlessness-in-gaza/, and there are records of many in the IDF saying 'there are no civilians here'. To quote from actual people in the IDF: “That evening, our battalion commander congratulated us for killing a terrorist, saying he hoped we’d kill ten more tomorrow,” the fighter adds. “When someone pointed out he was unarmed and looked like a civilian, everyone shouted him down. The commander said: ‘Anyone crossing the line is a terrorist, no exceptions, no civilians. Everyone’s a terrorist.’ This deeply troubled me – did I leave my home to sleep in a mouse-infested building for this? To shoot unarmed people?”
There's numerous heartbreaking stories of civilians being rounded up, of executions and the like. Children are targeted too: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167790. Clearly identified Humanitarian Vehicles like fire engines and ambulances have been attacked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafah_paramedic_massacre.
Massive numbers of civilian houses have been deliberately flattened for no legitimate military purpose, for devastating effect on civilians: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-88500-6_8
In the middle of a critical water shortage for Gazan civilians, civilian water infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted - see for example https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/9/1/destroyed-desalination-plant-worsens-gazas-drinking-water-crisis.
The position that all Palestinians and their assets, civilian or not, are fair game for targeting seems to be a long-standing position of the Israeli military: e.g. see "During war there are no civilians" in https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2010/9/8/during-war-there-are-no-civilians. Isaac Herzog (the president) said there are no innocent civilians in Gaza: https://thewire.in/world/northern-gaza-israel-palestine-conflict. "I think it will be possible to declare 'we have won' within a few months. Gaza will be completely destroyed, its civilians will be concentrated south of the Morag Axis - and from there, they will leave in large numbers to third countries" - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
So yes, there are ample records of targeting civilians.
Learn to read. I never made a claim about Israel.