You don't have to go back decades to find a situation similar to that in Aleppo. It's happening right now 300 miles away in the city of Mosul. 
Doug Sunders doesn't even try to explain why the bombing of Aleppo is an atrocity and a war crime, while the bombing of Mosul is not. Civilians are caught up in the bombing in both cases. The only difference is that in one case we arm the insurgents (prolonging the civil war) and in the other case we arm the coalition. The end result for civilians is the same.
There are some noted UK journalists who are actually on the ground in Aleppo who are beginning to report the true nature of the insurgency, and it is far from what is being reported by the North American press. See articles in "The Spectator", for example, for another side to the narrative.