Strategically the term is “countervalue”. In purely military terms, it removes the ability of the enemy to continue regenerating its troops or keep its war economy and industry functioning. That destruction of industrial ability was the primary purpose of the bombing of Dresden and Tokyo, as well as the primary purpose that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were on the list of targets.

The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan were pointless. The former as it destabilized the region and had no real strategic value besides oil which was already procured from the Saudis, and the latter because anyone we were actually trying to target could have been taken out with long distance strikes instead of trying to occupy and create a clearly unwanted government for the inhabitants.