Modern Warfare itself actually blurred the line of combatants and non combatants. Treated both the same.
Not to say in Ancient times, Medieval times early modern period that civilians were not targeted as we can see in sieges that civilians were targeted to cause maximum carnage.
War is bloody and destructive and brings out the worst in people.
We always call the ancient or medieval times as barbaric because they use swords and spears while we have bombs that can kill hundreds to millions in one go.
I see you understand what this is all about.
The gist of these people's argument is always 'hey but it happens in X timeframe, we're no longer in Y timeframe, it is no longer acceptable'. Them equate everything to the contemporary, masking it as 'modern times'.
These people are the kind of people that finds itself mega shocked that slavery existed and continue to exists. These are the very same people that when they saw the statue of colonialists like Colombus, instead of understanding what is the situation of the world when Colombus first colonialize America's, decide to torn it up. Yes he's pretty much a savage, but then the world is pretty much full of savages at the time of his living.
Times comes and pass by, but the basic of human needs remained the same, the need to multiply, the need to grow and expand, the need to provide etc. Human doesn't stop having sex just because sex itself comes from the human being after all right ?
War is the best medium/breeding ground of radicalism and extreme conduct, yet for these poobah's they masked their disdain for a particular country by putting their heads in the sand, calling it barbaric for the current times, yet if they EVER find once that their country is doing the same, they will find all sorts of justifications to do so. I have been in multiple war thread in this forum and I know what people's opinions are in regards to war, and depends who is the party of war they're either angels preaching rights or just a bunch of cheerleaders cheering for more destruction.
So yes, you're pretty much right with the examples of the sword and the bomb. Tools are no way to distract the intent. in the mid century tehy use catapult to torn walls added with siege's to cripple the population, in today's world they use bombers and all sorts of methods including sanctions to cripple the will of the opposing population. Like we saw with Russia wrt to Ukraine, and the West wrt to Russia.
Simple as that, but then not all people understand or willing to understand, because they're so full of ignorance masked behind whatever excuse they invent