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That footage is unbelievable. It's sad to think of the loss of all that life and history no matter what side it's on.

"Air raids on non-military targets that claim large numbers of civilian casualties are prohibited under international law". I guess the International Police were busy that day. For people to be shocked by such practices or debate it in the context of whether it is civil or not during war are delusional. It's war after all. (Should the Allies have stopped carpet bombing Germany while millions of other civilians are taken to the death camps because, you know, it's the proper thing to do? My ancestors would have voted no).

>> ^bremnet:

"Air raids on non-military targets that claim large numbers of civilian casualties are prohibited under international law". I guess the International Police were busy that day. For people to be shocked by such practices or debate it in the context of whether it is civil or not during war are delusional. It's war after all. (Should the Allies have stopped carpet bombing Germany while millions of other civilians are taken to the death camps because, you know, it's the proper thing to do? My ancestors would have voted no).


How is it better to try to kill everyone in the city--including innocent civilians, Jews, and POWs (like Kurt Vonnegot, who was in Dresden during that attack) than to do a targeted bombing campaign that specifically targets infrastructure, communications, and factories?

"It's war, after all."

You could justify just about anything with that statement, including the indiscriminate use of nuclear and chemical weapons, the execution of POWs, or the flying of jet planes into skyscrapers. It's not delusional to do as much as possible to prevent atrocities from occurring (or re-occurring as the case may be). You may not be able to wage a war without the possibility of an atrocity occurring but that certainly doesn't mean you shouldn't try to limit that possibility as much as possible.

^

I think there is some more middle ground necessary. This obviously and undeniably was an atrocity, on a grand scale. There is truth though in observing that in a war, you had better expect atrocities to be committed by not only your enemy, but your own side as well. It's a horrible thing to accept or expect, but it is simply an ugly truth of fighting a war.

If you agree that the Allies should have fought against the Nazi's, you have to take at least some degree of responsibility for the crimes the allies committed in prosecuting that war. It is beyond irresponsible to expect that a war can be prosecuted without horrific atrocities being committed, no war in history has ever managed to escape that pit. That doesn't mean we can't call those crimes out as such, it just means you can't completely distance yourself from them. Agreeing that the Allies should have fought the war is on some plane admitting that fighting and prosecuting that war was the lesser evil compared to not fighting.

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