The consequences of all out war are horrific and terrible ... but sometimes they must be born if we, and if liberty are to survive.
With the Germans and the Japanese, you had whole populations that were willingly, and in many cases, enthusiatically, contributing to the war effort by supplying materiel, munitions and the instruments of war to their soldiers. Those soldiers were committed enemies and the end of their intentions would have been to destroy our way of life and occupy our nation and then treat us like they were doing the peoples of Europs, Southeast Asia, China and any place else they defeated and over ran.
If you have the means to inflict severe damage on those manufacturing lines, if you have the means to break the will of the people supporting the war effort against you ... do you do it? What if you know that if you don't do it that the odds of your very survival are brought into serious doubt and question?
That's exactly what the issue is with such situations.
We are seeing the beginning, or perhaps just noticing the conditions where whole peoples are moving towards the same mindsets, or in some cases are already there.
I believe in such situations, as horrific as it is, as terrible as the decisions that are associated with it are ... that to end such an all out conflict between nations and cultures quickly and resoultely by inflicting as much damage on the war making capability of the enemy as possible is both justified and imperative ... even if that means that the civilians who are working in that capacity, indeed who are the substance of that capacity, are destroyed.
I pray we don't have to make such horrible decisions again, but I believe we are seeing the beginings of it. May God bless us to avoid it ... and if not, may God bless the right and allow liberty to survive in the world, and may He grant that we can end it quickly.