@Koliber:
1. And his action were targeted towards a nation.
A political nation, not an ethnic nation. -_-
2. I recalled something like this, but was unable to find this, so I just assumed I was mistaken. Can you give the source of this information (manga chapter, databbook)?
It's not in a databook, in the MANGA lol, in the chapters in the middle of Volume 20 we directly SEE the populace running away. It's right there.
3. That's why I wrote "kill". Many of the country's elite would be dead (royal family, all the army's officers, maybe more), in some way country would be beheaded,
Well that was also essentially the goal of Kohza. Both rebels and Crocodile alike were looking to end the old regime, Crocodile villified them for that very purpose.
I assume it's pretty clear the next step in his plan was to have the people of the country call for him to lead next. Which is why he was so busy making himself into the hero of the country, and a responsible local businessman to boot.
The elite of the country would probably be like below 1% of the population. Though I think Croc's point with the bomb was to make it seem like the Royals did that too, and also behead the rebels of their leaders. So that when the dust settled he really WAS the only potential political heir left. And the people would then call for him to lead.
which arguably is genocide itself (real life example - Katyn massacre).
Genocide is strictly regarding ethnicity/race/religion or some such. Massacring POWs is certainly a horrible war crime, but it's not a genocide or genocidal (Katyn was trictly Polish troops so there is some possible argument there). What Crocodile would be doing is like the Soviets massacring the elites of the Russian monarchy, or the Terror in the French Revolution. Not a genocide by any definition.
Besides, according to the 24 SBS there were 2 millions of rebels and 300 thousands of royal army present in Alabasta. As we've seen - all adult men (probably most young men). So he would essentialy kill almost quarter of nation (Alabasta's population - 10 millions),
The bomb was never going to destroy the city you know, it was going to blow up a large area in the middle. Which would kill a lot of people, but not nuke the city or whatever you're imagining. Crocodile even mentioned earlier that he had wanted to keep the palace around, because he would be living in it. As well as the ruins with the Poneglyph.
which was able to prolong it's "life" (which could be end of nation).
Do you seriously not recall Croc's plot at all? He never wanted to destroy Alabasta. He wanted to rule Alabasta. And use it as his springboard to world domination with the Pluton. The Nefertari dynasty was what he wanted gone.
All this was made in order to leave country leaderless and without force to oppose rule of BW. It was a genocide attempt.
It was in absolutely no sense a genocide.
He wanted to leave it leaderless, not without force. Did you completely miss that Crocodile was a saint to the people of the kingdom? He was setting himself up to be lifted by the Alabastans themselves to leadership once the king and his people were gone.
Look at every scene regarding Crocodile and common people, or even the rebels. He's being cheered and praised.
If Crocodile took control of Alabasta by force, he would be kicked out of the Shichibukai and attacked by the WG and Marines immediately. Think about it for half a second. Alabasta is clearly a WG member nation, and a Shichibukai would attack it and take it over? That would obviously not be ok by the WG.
For his plan to work, he would have to be made leader peacefully and willingly by the people. So that he ended up in a position not unlike Dofla in Dressrosa.