Eaglelord17
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
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Coventry, Dresden and Hiroshima were war crimes, just crimes that were never prosecuted. Much like how the Americans killed a insane number of Japanese POWs/surrendering troops (literally having to bribe them with ice cream to get them to stop killing them all), or how all sorts of Soviet war crimes were never persecuted.Some folks are just of the opinion that war is criminal and that all deaths are crimes against humanity.
With respect to what is a legitimate target
Infanteer with bayonet
Gunner loading cannon
Trucker delivering shell
Labourer manufacturing shell
Cook feeding labourer
Landlord supplying bed and board for labourer
Hospital fixing up injured infanteers, gunners, truckers, labourers, cooks and landlords?
They are all part of the total war effort.
It is why Coventry, Dresden and Hiroshima looked different in 1945 than they do today.
History is written by the victors, and the victors rarely are made to account for their crimes. There is plenty of evidence of allied war crimes, there was also a lack of caring to prosecute the soldiers. Much like how into the modern era America still has next to no criminal cases against its soldiers in modern conflicts despite the huge amounts of evidence that exist of it all.
Trying to defend modern war crimes by using historical ones is not a good thing. There is also plenty of evidence of attempting to cover up their crimes. Dresden for example they pretended to have legitimate targets but they all knew the goal was to destroy everything. Plenty of vets have admitted to that after the fact.
It was more a reprisal against a civilian population than a legitimate military target. Yes there was legitimate military targets in Dresden but most the areas they intentionally bombed was not.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was also terror bombings, chosen to hit a civilian center to cause as much civilian damage as possible. That whole myth Japan wouldn’t have surrendered without the bomb is just that, a myth. Japan was already negotiating their loss after Russia invaded.
The only part that the US didn’t like was that they weren’t unconditionally surrendering. The US killed 300k civilians in a horrific manner just to prove a point, not because of some overarching saving American lives BS.
All those attacks would fail the updated Geneva conventions, and its good they would. The world deserves better than reprisal based attacks on civilians.