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That's why that whole Mi Lai Massacre debacle chapped my rear. those guys were scape goats for all the atrocities performed in that war.

Depends on which side your on. The bombings of German citizens would have surely been considered a war crime if Germany had won. Today the bombings of Iraqi Citizens is called collateral damage. In the years to come the Iraqi historians and educators will probably be calling collateral damage something else. Spain is ahead of the curve. In some public arenas what Harris did is considered a war crime. Especially those who are still alive to remember it.

"The bombing of Dresden was a shame on the allies. The war was almost over, Hitler was losing. It was just done to show our strength and to scare the Russians a little."

I always supposed, and the prevailing theory was, that one of the main motivations for bombing Dresden was to impress the Sovs with British and American air power and give them a graphic warning that they better stick to the provisions of Yalta.

However, newly available documents that I read ( after the USSR crumbled ) revealed that the Sovs ASKED us to bomb Dresden. The coordination for the strike was carried out full knowledge of the USSR.

That being said, someone should go back and see what the latest historiography is on the subject.

P.S.: Regardless, it was in inconscionable act.

Personally, I think Air Marshal Harris was a louse.

But. . .you have to understand that, from 1942 through the first half of 1944, this was the only way Britain could strike at Germany.

I do not think the civilian population of Britain would have accepted doing nothing to Germany all those years. In effect, the bombing was more of a political act than a military one.

"In effect, the bombing was more of a political act than a military one."
Please, explain.

revenge for the blitz (the bombing of london etc by the germans)

Civilian annihilation really didn't become popular until the 1st world war. Prior to that battlefields were equipped with proper seating for the populace to watch the carnage. Remember the coliseums?

As far as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I saw way too many pictorial accounts of the aftermath and then what the survivors suffered to make me ever believe in war - AT ALL!!

The Viet Nam "conflict" was abominable. It seemed that there was little else other than death and scapegoats in what was once a beautiful country. And civilian casualties.
Think we will ever learn? I wish but hope has gone out for a timeout while we destroy a few more civilian populations.

I am not sad. I am appalled that we seem to have fallen to the depths of the politicians and generals.

And so,

Happy Fifth of July!!

We act as if making war on the civilian population is strictly a modern innovation .Throughout history you can read accounts of cities being besieged , captured , and burned to the ground with the entire population being slaughtered and/or sold into slavery . We aren't doing anything different , we are just doing it in a different way . I don't mean to condone the practice as being acceptable because of long traditition . It is still wrong , I am just pointing out that the essence of the action hasn't changed in thousands of years .

Incendiary bombing of civilian populations in Japan and Germany was a deliberate act of terror. It's justification was a mater of economics, minimum effective force. The intent was to break the will of the people to support the war effort. Did it work, marginally, I think it hardened as many as it demoralized.
Can it be justified, perhaps if you balance lives saved verses lives lost. Was it wrong, YES!

I have said it before that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a crime. A deliberate attack on the largest civilian population. Not justified at that point in the war. A demonstration of the power would have been enough without the horror of the largest populations. I know a lady who was a child at the time, she escaped only because they were visiting grandparents that day.................
My father was POW in Japan, and even he thought it was wrong. He probably would have died had the war not ended when it did but........still does not justify it.
Dresden.....likewise. Made us as bad as the enemy in my opinion.
When you do what the enemy does, you become the enemy.
Vietnam........was not my war but watching from afar I saw what atrocities were done and passed off as collateral damage. To massacre a village is in no way acceptable nor human. Even though Callie (spelling) was probably a scapegoat, he deserved it. Terrible things were done in that war. Inhuman things. The nature of man gets worse.
Someone has to think up things like flame throwers and the methods of torture and those people have to be completely and utterly inhuman. Satan is alive and well.......