This is the story overall of strategic bombing campaigns. All they do is strengthen the resolve of the recipient country and rally people to the flag.

Before using the nuclear weapons on Japan, we literally firebombed every city in Japan BUT Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And arguably the only reason they surrendered when they did was because Russia was beginning a large scale invasion of their own.

People who call themselves "foreign policy experts" but advocate for regime change through bombing are not serious people, and the fact that we have treated them as such for so long is an indictment on our collective intelligence.