Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc James Small replied to my remark that > >WW1 was when armies faced off against armies. WWII was when they prefered civilian targets. with > Almost 300,000 US military personnel died in combat operations in the > Second World War. I would suggest that a retraction and apology is in order. Don't be ridiculous. Combat operations also included bomber raids against many civilian cities. Remember the Dresden fire storm which incinerated thousands of woman and children. Remember how the US Army dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities. Those were "Combat Operations". I will not enter a numbers count here, fill in your own figures. WWII men in uniform implemented holocaust. Their submarines sank unarmed merchant ships. Their bombers in Blitzkrieg attacked civilian targets. Decimated village reprisal hostages. etc. etc. It is a fact that the military killed and maimed more civilians than they killed other soldiers. It was safer to be in uniform. I have no idea what I am supposed to apologise for. What I said was that WWII targeted and deliberately killed civilians as a matter of policy. This did not happen during WWI where the armies were facing each other almost from day one. In fact I do believe that more poeple died in a few month from the Flu Pandemic in 1918(?) than all military casualties on all sides during the full length of the war. What fascinates me most about WWI is that it is the pinnacle of both human stupidity and human tenacity. To me, WWII was about "evil". It broke the code of honour that a soldier does not earn medals killing civilians (or survivers in a lifeboat). Sorry for the off-topic, but this is a response to MJS high-horsing request. And I swear I will not respond further. Alan