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To: Lessingham

Col Tibbets and his colleagues were not evil.

The camp guards hiding in Canada, on the other
hand, were and are.

Judge the rest on an individual basis, and if cause
exists, bring charges. Good luck finding witnesses to
testify.


37 posted on 11/03/2005 1:11:00 PM PST by rahbert
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To: rahbert
I certainly don’t dispute that the Allies may have committed unlawful acts. Hiroshima I know is a touchy topic here, but some may argue that incinerating civilians was not lawful. Although since learning recently that the Japanese had been working to develop their own A-bomb, America’s rush to finish it seems a lot easier to defend. The flames of Dresden was not a pretty entry into the war either – but one could argue the Germans bear collective guilt for allowing members of their citizenry to fall under state persecution – not only allowing it, but even rejoicing in it.

So for those that argue the tired refrain that the victors become the judge can be turned on its head. It is easy for Germans after Victory Day to claim ignorance of what was happening in their own nation; but one wonders if that wasn’t a case of the losers saying what anyone caught red handed would say to save their skins.
42 posted on 11/03/2005 1:33:22 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
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To: rahbert

Clearly most people, my self included, recognize the Nazi regime as inherently wicked, as were regimes of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

I don't think the crews who dropped the A-Bombs were evil and I don't think they thought they were doing evil.

However, there were unecessary measures taken after the war in Operation Keelhaul in which about a million Russians were repatriated by the U.S. and Britain. These Russians faced death by and large, and our side knew it. Those who took part in Operation Keelhaul knew it was a terrible thing they doing and felt very guilty about it for the most part, I imagine. I think they are very comparable to German soldiers involved in deporting innocent people to concentration camps. I think the analogy is very apt. I think both the German soldiers (and Ukrainians, Latvians, etc.) AND ours did what was morally wrong in these instances. I don't think we should hunting those people because they are "evil" because they are no more evil than their American and British counterparts in these two similar crimes. To be fair, the guiltiest in Operation Keelhaul were our top commanders, and I don't think it would serve any purpose to try them post-mortem for a terrible crime that somehow they excused themselves of in their own minds. They, however, committed as serious a crime against humanity as almost all the "Nazi war criminals" being pursued today.


48 posted on 11/07/2005 10:45:50 PM PST by Lessingham (Robert Aickman and Russell Kirk: The Best Ghost Story Writers Are on The Right)
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