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To: mvpel
Ah, the perennial perpetuation of the "we bombed Dresden to kill civilians" balderdash.

Do a bit of homework. The actual AAF AAR is out there. It is twenty pages on why we hit Dresden and guess what? Punishing German civilans is not listed. Destroying optics and munitions factories is. Destroying the hub of three different rail lines is. Honoring the multiple requests from the advancing Russian army is.

But don't let the facts ruin a good piece of propoganda.

21 posted on 12/30/2008 6:08:41 AM PST by wtc911 ("How you gonna get back down that hill?")
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To: wtc911
Ah, the perennial perpetuation of the "we bombed Dresden to kill civilians" balderdash.

I didn't say that, not in the slightest.

And likewise, the operation by the IAF against Gaza isn't about "punishing Gazan civilians" either, it's about destroying explosives labs, rocket storage facilities, smuggling tunnels, and terrorist leadership.

23 posted on 12/30/2008 6:14:24 AM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: wtc911
Dresden: Location of a devastating air-raid in February 1945: Dresden burned for several days and nights and the number killed has never been precisely known. In 1945 Dresden was thought to be the safest town in Germany, but with the January Russian offensive, refugees from the east were pouring in and, with the 26.000 Allied prisoners held there, the city was overcrowded and the parks used for camps. The Russians at the Allied conference in Yalta in February asked for air attacks on communication centres ahead of their advance. Dresden was selected. 13 February was Shrove Tuesday and many carnival parties were ending when the first attack by the RAF started. The Luftwaffe had few night-fighters deployed and the air-raid warnings were not given until too late. In two attacks that night, 786 RAF bombers dropped 2.647 tons of bombs. Fires raged throughout the centre of the city and the air-defence services were overwhelmed. On the morning of 14 February, 316 USAAF bombers struck again. The next day, Thursday 15 February another 211 USAAF planes came by day. There is little doubt that the object of the bombing was to create the firestorm phenomenon which had been accidentally achieved (with utterly devastating results) in the great Hamburg raid. Casualty estimates have since been a matter of argument. The Dresden police are quoted as having given a first estimate of 18.000 dead, with an expectation of a greater number to be found on later counts; but since then there have been estimates as high as 130.000. The Russians at first gave a low figure in reaction to German propaganda, but later found it useful to give the highest numbers as proof of ruthlessness in destroying one of Europe's most beautiful and defenceless cities. The casualties were certainly high, probably as many as 70.000. The effectiveness of the raids may also be questioned for, in spite of major dislocation, trains ran through Dresden on 15 February, two days after the first attack.
25 posted on 12/30/2008 6:28:57 AM PST by kabar
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To: wtc911

oh please, next thing you’ll tell us is that the a-bombs dropped on Japan weren’t meant to kill civilians.

do you think any one is going to write killing civilians as an objective in any formal document? of course not, but any reasonable person understands that when you turn an entire city into rubble it’s not because you have such bad aim that you hit every single residential building by accident.

even in ww2 the u.s had pretty good bomb sights so if it wanted to destroy just the factories and railroads it could have done it with SOME collateral damage but without destroying the whole city.

but this is by no means a condemnation.
this is how you should have fought and that is how every western country should fight when faced against a barbaric enemy such as nazis or muslims.


40 posted on 12/30/2008 1:18:03 PM PST by kahana
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