Sherman and Churchill were wrong about that. Guilt or aggression cannot be imputed to somebody who has intended you no harm, spoken you no harm, and done you no harm. That's why the willful killing of civilians --- properly so defined --- whether targeted or intentionally indiscriminate, is murder.
Wrong.
Civilians support teh regime, civilians work in industries vital to the enemy economy, and bombing residential areas “de-houses” the workforce again affecting the economy.
Plus it saps morale, and even the widdle kiddies won’t grow up to be terrorists.
I admire Sherman and Churchill, and I’ll take their words over some namby-pamby moralist who even thinks killing the enemy is murder.
What a maroon!
I don’t believe Sherman ever said any such thing. I’ve read several biographies, and he expressed his personal regret that civilians had to suffer as a result of his army’s actions, however much he considered those actions necessary to bring the war to an end. He stated that when the war was over he would share his last cracker with the former enemy.
In May 1865 Sherman wrote, in a private letter, “I confess, without shame, I am sick and tired of fighting—its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands and fathers ... tis only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.
This does not sound like someone unconcerned about civilian casualties or suffering.
I am skeptical Churchill said this. He was known to be less than comfortable with Bomber Harris and his intentional targeting of German civilians. Like Sherman, he considered it necessary, but did not consider those civilians legitimate targets in the same way soldiers were.
That said, I think you can make a very good case that citizens of a democracy are more legitimate as targets than subjects of an authoritarian or totalitarian state. In the CSA the suffering civilians Sherman targeted were in control of the government he fought. The government was doing their bidding. At one remove, they had initiated the war or at least insisted it continue.
In Nazi Germany, while they may have supported it, the civilians did not control the government.
All muslims intend harm. It’s in the koran.
Bullcrap.