There are many ways to argue it, and some may be fully right, but is there one quasi-definitive version of the argument that explains why this is fundamentally different from what Allied armies did to civilians in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Dresden? What is the basic conviction on it?
There are many ways to argue it, and some may be fully right, but is there one quasi-definitive version of the argument that explains why this is fundamentally different from what Allied armies did to civilians in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Dresden? What is the basic conviction on it?
@JacobBloom31 I guess. That seems like mostly what is argued about when these comparisons are pursued. What other senses might it be analyzed in? Open to the question - is another one other than ethics more salient?
@MikeDrewWhat I doubt that anything is more salient for most people than the moral questions. And on that I'm not sure I see a whole lot of difference. I tend to think that killing civilians is going to be tough to justify along those lines.
@JacobBloom31 I tend to agree, though there is also the argument that the whole idea of total war is exactly the dissolution of the military/civilian distinction - total war is when the whole of the one society goes to war with the whole of the other in a test of each’s collective will…
@JacobBloom31 …which is a state of being wherein essentially all killing by members of one society of members of the other becomes allowed in the same way limited war “allows” killing in more limited circumstances (military targets). I think Palestinian society sees itself to essentially be
@JacobBloom31 …in that state of being/war viz. Israel. That doesn’t mean killing like the above is “allowed” for them; they may not *correctly* see it that way. But equally… were the Allies correct to see it that way?
@MikeDrewWhat I mean I think the answer is probably yes but I don't know for sure. I like to think that I would have been willing to risk being wrong under those circumstances.
@JacobBloom31 I have a hard time seeing the justification for an American view that it was in total war with Germany - or Japan. Pearl Harbor was not located in American land except inasmuch as it was an American military outpost. Hitler had declared war on the U.S. but not attacked it.