[Charlespg]

The objection is, that the civilians killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not collateral deaths. These deaths were intended, inasmuch as (1) the US chose to use indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction and (2) the US intended that the psychological effect of a butchery of such magnitude would shock the Japanese High Command.

Tell me would you have dropped the Bomb on Berlin to end the the Holocaust ? The Japanese went on a rampage in WWII and did things that we would have hanged the Germans over a dozen times for

I have some sympathy for the individual citizens,but countries that embark on wars of conquest and genocide should be ready for the consequences

Honorable soldiers don't target civilians. George Washington didn't target civilians. Robert E. Lee didn't target civilians.

back then wars were fought by professional armies,and they weren't fighting against Hitler and Co either

[Mrs. Don-o]

As I mentioned in previous posts, the extreme murderousness of the Axis Powers would justify the use of overwhelming military power on our part to destroy their war-making capacities. That this would produce high collateral civilian casualties is pretty horrible, but under the circumstances, inevitable.

All that is quite different from indiscriminate city = target bombing. To deliberately and indiscriminately kill noncombatants is not, properly speaking, an act of war. It is massacre. It is murder.