Reply #8: When General Sherman started attacking civilians [View All]

[kcwayne]

in the Civil War, most people throughout the world were absolutely appalled at the barbarity of it. Armies were supposed to fight armies. Women, children, and elderly were considered off limits.

Even in WWI the war was not directed explicitly at civilians.

The barbarism took hold during the Spanish Civil war, and the Japanese invasions of Korea and China, where civilians were targeted militarily.

WWII dropped all pretense of war as civilized killing, and everyone was fair game.

The idea that killing civilians as a necessary component of war is an affront to morality. What control do civilians have over their government?

Suppose China, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union decided that Bush's adventures in the Middle East pose a grave danger to their security, and launch a preemptive nuclear strike that takes out most of the major cities in the US. What say did you have to the government's choice to start and conduct war, and should you pay the price such as the citizens of Dresden?

At the time of the bombing of Dresden, there was no question about the outcome of the war, and Dresden had no military or industrial installations that enabled Germany to prolong the fight. Killing these people under these conditions was nothing less than premeditated murder. Senseless premeditated murder.