I never thought I’d see the day when so many FReepers would sign on a total rejection of everything the West, Christians, and Americans have ever said about ius in bello.
Not everything is justified in war. Those on this thread who are offering arguments from Dresden’s role as a rail nexus and industrial center are staying within the Christian and Western and American moral tradition.
Those arguing either (1) that anything, absolutely anything, goes in war or (2) the Germans did it first (Mommy, Mommy, he started it) have left behind any shred of traditional morality.
And those denouncing those standing up for ius in bello, for limits and rules about warfare as whiney bleeding hearts or even traitors (Hanoi Jane), they are the biggest cheap shotters of all.
Argue about whether the bombing of Dresden was justified by the rules of war or not but don’t assert that there are no rules, whatsoever. That reasoning is not only lazy but hellish.
What someone does when he advocates on behalf of unrestricted warfare is place his own family, community, nation ~ every man woman and child in jeopardy someday.
Righto.
We believe we deserve to win because we’re the good guys. We’re the good guys because we try to follow certain rules, like not unnecessarily killing babies, that limit our options in war to some extent.
Those who reject any rules at all thereby toss overboard any reason why we should think of ourselves as still being the good guys. IOW, they abandon any reason why we should win, instead of the other side.
On what mostal basis do they denounce the concentration camps and slave labor of the Nazis? It was war. They were killing their enemies. Nothing to see here.
Those who reject the notion of any rules in war are in direct conflict with our country’s founding document.
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
I guess the Founders didn’t really have any reason to complain. King George was just waging war by any means necessary.
Hiroshima also deserves to be remembered, and to do so doesn't make one a "bleeding heart."
Too many Freepers, being conservatives, love history, and get sucked into the History Channel and its clones which haven’t produced any historical value for a decade but do produce and endless supply of revisionism, watered down education, and numerous tidbits and facts that are packaged together in hairbrained explanations of history that would have been laughed at by any serious historian (or literate critical thinker) a generation ago.