Originally Posted by
ABNAK
Sure, there may have been some sublime assertions being made, but make no mistake about the main reasons: Dresden was firebombed for REVENGE (don't blame them, but let's not sugarcoat it), and The Bomb was dropped to prevent another half-million American casualties.
Absolutely. If we thought Iwo Jima and Okinawa were bad, we hadn't seen anything yet. Japan was prepared to recall nearly every soldier from Manchuria, China and all other occupations to join with every citizen of Japan in a sacrificial defense of Japan and the Emperor. The realization that we might simply atom bomb and fire bomb them into oblivion without a glorious sacrificial battle is the only thing that brought them to terms, that and the fact that our "unconditional surrender" actually afforded them more than a few considerations such as the pretense that the Emperor was not involved and had no knowledge of any war crimes.
As for Dresden, yeah not a military target and killing women and children who had no ability to change nazi ideology even if they wanted to is pretty horrible, but war is pretty horrible and it was horrible for women and children in Poland when Germany and Russia decided to rape them mercilessly from both sides, so they earned their Dresden and Hamburg as much as Japan earned their Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Probably the worst war crime of WWII is that Stalin was never charged or made to accept responsibility for his early actions when he was allied with Hitler.
It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.
Chuck, we miss ya man.
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