Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: Mrs. Don-o

Please compare and contrast the atomic bombing of two cities, and the incendiary bombing of over two dozen cities. Do you see any moral distinction between, let us say, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the incendiary bombing of Tokyo?


45 posted on 08/06/2015 9:48:15 AM PDT by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies ]


To: NorthMountain

Compare the death toll and damage from conventional and fire bombs dropped on Germany to that of the final 2 atomic bombs dropped on Japan


54 posted on 08/06/2015 9:57:55 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies ]

To: NorthMountain
No. If the intent was the indiscriminate killing of the innocent, then the means is just a technical detail. It doesn't matter whether you kill them with incendiaries or nukes, with a bomb, abortion or a baseball bat.

One possible moral distinction: even in WWII, when the precision targeting technology just wasn't there, in some cases, ordinary incendiary bombs could be reasonably directed toward enemy troops or assets. You can see this in the early period of the War in Europe, when the US Army Air Corps did daytime bombings focusing on Nazi military assets. This was in contrast to the RAF, which did nighttime carpet bombings of whole cities, city block by city block.

Even if they predictably caused a whole lot of collateral civilian damage, the USAAC was justified in using incendiary bombs targeted "as exactly as they could" ---these bombings, though devstating, were not targeting the civilian per se.

I don't know whether the bombings of e.g. Tokyo were intended to slaughter and incinerate civilians, or if they were focused on military assets but (collaterally) resulted in horrific city-consuming firestorms. If they were solely intended to destroy military assets, they were justified. If they were not --- if they were intentionally focused on civilians, or deliberately indiscriminate --- they were the moral equivalent of Auschwitz, the London Blitz, or Planned Parenthood.

69 posted on 08/06/2015 11:15:59 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("He shall defend the needy, He shall save the children of the poor, and crush the oppressor.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson