I can't speak for everyone, but in my country the military tries not to create legitimate military targets in the middle of our cities, so it's not really something we've had to deal with.
If you were to carpet bomb, lets say, all the car factories in Detroit, which is a perfect dual-use target, how much of the city would be left?
The more appropriate question would be, imagine a group of American terorists staged a 9/11-equivalent in China. Imagine 4000 people died and that militarily China has an upper hand.
Would carpet bombing Detroit be the right thing to do in responce?
Is there a history of America bombing China (like Hamas is doing in Israel)?
Is the US government in fact firing rockets at China at the very moment when China retaliates with the bombing?
Are the Chinese bombs in your scenario actually carpet bombing or are they bombs or missiles directed at specific military targets that America happens to build below hospitals?
> military targets that.. happens to [be] below hospitals?
It is tragic that folks in the Anglosphere do not realise how this sounds to someone from a neutral country, say India.
Surely a rational person cannot believe that hamas uses babies as human shields, but at election time they are virtuous and organise free and fair elections?
Unless you also believe that Russian referendum conducted in Crimea, at gunpoint point, was free and fair?
When Russian military would bomb a school, they would also do a press release about a bunker under than school. I think this is copyright infringement
I am not defending Hamas or saying the government is legitimate. Quite the opposite. I am attacking the analogy with China. I wanted to emphasize that China attacking a US city due to the actions of some American terrorist citizens is a flawed analogy because the terror that is coming from Gaza is not just some citizens but it‘s state sponsored, by the Gaza government and of course also by Iran. A better analogy would be a hypothetically powerful former government of Afghanistan attacking the US in 2002. But it‘s also flawed since the roles as partially reversed. So not good either.
Regarding Russia bombing a school … the Russian government lies whenever they open their mouth. It is far beyond what we see from other governments. Of course they would lie about bombing a school. And their weapons are not great so of course they will hit it by accident. Compare with Israel: They have much more precise weapons, are far less likely to miss and have much more information and intelligence from Gaza. Still they will make mistakes. But those mistakes were also made when fighting ISIS. Many civilians died. Consider this: Nobody protested like they do now.
Regarding the fair elections, well the elections in 2005 were probably fair.
Being German myself, please allow me a comparison to 1933. The Germans elected their dictatorship. Very quickly, within a few months, that government started to dismantle democracy and resistance became very risky very quickly. Certainly that did not absolve the Germans of their responsibility and it does not absolve the Russians of their responsibility right now regarding Ukraine and it does not absolve the people of Gaza of their responsibility in electing Hamas in the first place and supporting them (for those who do, which is not everyone).
That being said - I made a different point. Hope that's clearer now.
No doubt Hamas uses human shields, but there are also accounts going back decades of IDF targetting aid workers, journalists and civilians On Purpose.