The US certainly adopted a propaganda policy of dehumanisation of their Japanese opponents. This, no matter how you want to describe it, was a policy of racism designed to make it easy for their troops to destroy the enemy.

Whether the bombing of cities in Japan is therefore a rascist attack is more difficuly to reconcile. Personally I dont think it was. While the propagnada was rascist in tone the actions of the air force had a distinct military objective to destroy the enemies will to resist and destroy the civilian infrasturcture.

The same is true of British attacks in Germany. They were aimed at destroying the German will to resist and place further strain on the German economy and cripple the German workforce by destruction.

Sadly it is a fact of 'Total War' that the civilian no longer has the protection that they may have once enjoyed, although even that is open to debate. Civilian deaths are an unavoidable fact in war. It always has been.

As for Dresden, it was seen at the time as a legitimate miltary act and in my mind was merely yet another attack on the German nation in a time of war, albeit one that cost a great deal of lives, but again one that struck at the German workforce and placed strain on the German will to resist.

I once had the good fortune to meet a pilot who dropped the markers Dresden for the bombers. After the war he became a monk in Ireland as he was unable to cope with the deaths he had caused to the civilians. I asked him if he felt his actions were wrong. He stated that although he felt a great deal of guilt at having taken so many lives, he felt that at the time it was right. I asked him if he would do anything differently with hindsight and he said no. It was to him the right thing to do to punish a nation that had started a horrific war, but he has had to live with the knowledge that his actions killed large numbers of people.

In my mind, attacks on civilian centres can be seen as a legitimate target in war. Perhaps not the most politically correct thing to say, but when fighting a regime such as the Third Reich, I believe the ends justify the means.

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"The Americans will always do the right thing ... After they've exhausted all the alternatives."

Winston Churchill

Well put, VN.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Hind sight allows us to see things not apparent at the time. I have regrets about the Dresden bombing, and I question the motives behind it, but only from a logical retrospective.

Racism is a factor in every war. It will always be so, as even when we are an enlightened culture, it is a kernal of who we are. It is one thing to feel more comfortable with similar races and cultures. It is another to base actions on a perception of superiority based on it. We talk about race as if it is clear cut color and features, but it is not. Sometimes it is easier to note cultural differences than racial differences. And sometimes it is ridiculous how it is calculated. Should a person that is 1/16th of any race be considered as that, when they are 15/16ths another race. My wife is 7/8 Germanic origin and 1/16th to 1/8th Ottawa. If it were not for the fact that she cannot trace her great-grandmother's name to the registration rolls, she would be classified as American Indian. We can be such a silly species at times.

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Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am.

Talking about racism and historical revisionists ... Is Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Byelorussia (and many others countries) is an Anglo-Saxon world? Maybe you can say something like “Anglo-Saxon world with a little help of others”

Quote:

first Europeans into the Americas were the Spanish conquistadors proves your claim to be utterly false. The conquistadors had no women with them so your claim that the Indians were the first to start raping is not only nonsense, it is obvious nonsense.

Do I miss something? Are we talking about same Indians and same America? Because I think indians in South America doing just fine.

In Canada they have the Native Network funded by the tax-payers.
One time a well-respected program host interviewed for a History Channel program said (paraphrasing) ...

'the only difference between what you did in the Americas and what Hitler tried to do with his Final Solution was that you succeeded and write the history books and he failed.'

His program funding was reportedly cut for a while, but upon appeal and arbitration in a public forum, it was determined that 'however unpallitable the position was, it was founded in historical fact and was protected under the Bill of Rights'...even where freedom of media was not applicable in gov't funding.

Now I've got that old Bloom County (Opus) cartoon up on the wall of an office where Opus and the guys are at a table and everyone else in the restaurant are non-white-straight-males-whose-ancestors-kicked-ass and were ordered to 'apologize'.

As a hetero-sexual white male, politically incorrect as they come I do feel picked on no doubt. Persecuted even. Believe me.

But still, a spade is a spade no matter how much I want the card in that hand to be a diamond.

There is definately a double-standard in how we, the victors, write the history books too.

[quote=Myxa;226829]Talking about racism and historical revisionists ... Is Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Byelorussia (and many others countries) is an Anglo-Saxon world? Maybe you can say something like “Anglo-Saxon world with a little help of others”


Sorry if I upset you by not mentioning the Soviet Union's large contribution to the final victory. My post was addressed to the posters from the Western Allies in general and the Anglo-Saxon nations (the majority here, I believe) to be specific. The Soviet Union and Russia have enough moral problems facing them from their history. My post kind of evens the playing field by pointing out that while the USA and its junior allies (Britain, Canada, Australia etc.) were victors in both WWII and the Cold War, they should hesitate before claiming sole possession of the moral high ground.

You obviously don't know any Indians in South America. They are at the bottom in terms of wealth, power and social status in every single country in South America, a fate they share with their native brethren in North and Central America as well. So yeah, you are missing something; apparently you're missing everything about this issue.

Marienburg, you also do not know your native americans well. Their fate is as diverse as their history. Many tribes and individuals are well off. Most of their problems stem from a failure to adopt the ways of society. Just as it is not needed to abandon God in today's society, it not needed to abandon one's heritage.

We as a species must continue to grow. As we do, many of the old beliefs are left in the dust. But, a lot remain that are acceptable to both reality and faith.

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Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am.

[quote=Marienburg;228115]So, is no one entitled to the moral high ground at all?

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
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