02-22-2003, 03:41 AM
Quote:I can't believe that ANYONE would try to justify the purposeful, deliberate murder of 135,000 PLUS mostly refugee civilians as being "part of war". The city had practically no strategic significance, and, as has been stated above, was largely filled with women, children, and those fleeing the war. Crushing the spirit? The war was nearly over! (Not that I feel that such a motivation justifies this particular act in the first place)
Serious scientists estimate the total number of victims who died in the bombing of dresden to be ~40,000. That 135,000 stuff definately is nothing more than propaganda. Propaganda that many people like to believe recently.
Quote:By your reasoning, the Americans should carpet bomb Baghdad and kill as many of its citizens as possible -and each and every one of them would absolutely deserve it. Because they didn't oppose Saddam, of course.
Saddam is a dangerous criminal, but so far, he has not done anything even remotely comparable to the Holocaust.
I did not say that it was the Americans´ "task" to bomb Dresden. I said that the vast majority of the people who died in Dresden were not innocent victims, but the very same people who actively supported the regime that really is responsible for WW2 and all its consequences.
Quote:Edit: Thought that I would address Pete's point re: how is this bombing an example of an atrocity? To my mind, the people of Dresden were as much a part of an extermination plan, if a less demeaning and terrible one, as were the Jews. The Jews were persecuted and exterminated on the basis of race. The people of Dresden were, to take it perhaps a fraction too far, in one night, for all intents and purposes, premeditatedly persecuted and to a frightening degree, exterminated on the basis of their geographic location. I suppose that the key word here is EXTERMINATED. The goal was no less than complete and total eradication. While Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jewish populace was, perhaps, more vile, demeaning, and uninstigated; the nature of the crimes are, to my mind, not so far apart as you seem to believe.
Was there a German extermination plan against Jews ? Yes.
Was there a US/allied extermination plan against Germans ? No.
Had the allied forces wanted extermination of Germany, they could have done so. They could just have taken a bit more time and dropped a series of nuclear bombs upon Germany. They did not.
Dresden was attacked in a war that Germany had started. Dresden was attacked for the purpose of breaking the morale of the German population, who kept supporting the Nazi forces.
For what purpose were Jews eliminated by the Nazis ? For no other purpose than to eliminate them. That is the difference.
The natures of the crimes are as far apart as they can be. The one was a (maybe right, maybe wrong) strategical decision within a brutal conflict. The other one was the most barbaric crime in history.
Moldran