Last night, I was watching a WWII documentary, and the “Terror Bombing” of Dresden was mentioned. It is estimated that about 25,000 innocent civilians, men, women, and children were killed. Thus far there have been more than 35,000 innocent men, women, and children killed in Gaza.
Yes, Hamas started the most recent fight, but I also saw a documentary where Jewish rebels killed one German soldier. The Germans killed 20 men, women, and children in reprisal. Who is at fault for the death of those 20?
My father, who spent four years in Pacific Theater, would always say, “War is Hell.”
The nightly fire raids on Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo were effective in achieving victory at war, but were they morally justified? In the years since the war, the answer to this question has been a resounding ‘No.’ Indeed, the incendiary bombing campaigns on the cities of Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo disregarded the most basic standards of morality with their indiscriminate killing of innocent men, women and children. Prior to the war, the American State Department even declared that “civilian bombings are in violation of the most elementary principles of those standards of human conduct which have been developed as an essential part of modern civilization.” (Knell 1) After the war, British Prime Minister expressed some feelings of regret remarking “It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed… The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing.” (Siebert 3) Yet any British or American remorse for these raids (which has been limited among the British and almost absent from the Americans) is always attached to a disclaimer that war is regrettably, yet inevitably brutal, and what was done was necessary for the victory of the Allies. Source
