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From: litow@uwmeecs.UUCP (Dr. B. Litow)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.misc,net.rumor
Subject: Re: Lives saved by nuking Japan?!? (was Re: The Presidents...)
Message-ID: <379@uwmeecs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Jun-86 12:54:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmeecs.379
Posted: Thu Jun 12 12:54:07 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Jun-86 05:54:04 EDT
References: <133@petrus.UUCP> <513@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>
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Organization: U of Wi-Milwaukee, Dept of EE and CS
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Xref: watmath net.politics:16802 net.misc:9801 net.rumor:2682

> I don't know about the Geneva Convention, but a lot of the conventional
> bombing during WWII was directed a civilian targets. Don't forget Dresden,
> and many other such cities. Indeed, Tokyo had been leveled just as
> completely with conventional bombs as had Hiroshima and Nagasaki with
> an A-bomb. The later is just a lot more efficient. Of course, it was
> argued that the bombing of cities was necessary because of war industries
> nearby but the strategic bombing survey conducted after the war showed
> that it was nearly useless and if anything stiffened the resolve of the
> people.

Civilian bombing was of the greatest mistakes of WWII but it was committed
on both sides. Why is the V2 bombing of London never mentioned in connection
with Dresden? The allies had no monopoly on atrocities by airwar. The
'Vernichter Zwei' also points well beyond the 'Geneva Convention' to such
things as the US B52 raids in Vietnam and Cambodia and the use of attack
planes and helicopters by the USSR in Afghanistan. The expansion of the
theater of war operations to the entire planet makes it clear independently
of nuclear devices that war must be made obsolete.
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