Whoah! - This is like the Rosetta stone of the entire point! Excellent point to bring up and excellent question.
IMO, there is clear blue water between politics and the military. Yes, all war is political, but military means can only be applied to military problems or security problems. The concept of "military influence" is verging on the absurd, if taken too far. Military force can only legitimately be used against military or armed forces.
If the problem is not a military one, then military force is a logically less than effective instrument.
Military force is about breaking will. It is the imposition conditions that the enemy resists. It is not useful to frame that idea in the concepts of "sending messages" or "influencing people."
The real problem with the air power weenies is there enduring quest to show that air power is an effective political or coercion/influence tool. We all know it is an historically indecisive military tool, and getting more and more limited in it's applicability.
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