Meanwhile, a couple of thousand kilometers away, the USA is killing hundreds of civilians in its own bombing campaign in Mosul, Iraq. Apologists for that carnage insist that the US doesn't willfully target civilians like some terrorists do. Yet the result is still the same: many dead civilians.

Be the perpetrators a terrorist group or the US military the motive is identical in each case: to achieve a desired political outcome through violent means. As the desired outcome is political, the decision to try for it is also political. And it's made in the full knowledge that many civilians will perish whether the goal is achieved or not.

There's little moral difference between the tactics used by terrorists and those used by modern military forces. The former knowingly kills civilians as a direct means to bring about a political outcome. The latter knowingly kills civilians (and usually in higher numbers) indirectly, as a means to achieve a political outcome.