We do the victims of war a disservice when we attempt to discuss the savage butchery of war anything other than "harshly."

I mean wasn't the bombing of Dresden completely pointless strategically?

No, the bombing of Dresden was completely pointless tactically. Do you know the difference?

Strategy: a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.

Tactics: an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.

"Tactics" is "I will take that bridge in order to prevent the retreat of my enemy." "Strategy" is "I will use encirclement whenever possible because my enemy's performance is significantly curtailed when he's denied maneuverability."

Sowing salt into the earth of Carthage was a tactic (permanent and total area denial) to carry out the strategy of "annihilate the Phoenician Empire." Shock & Awe is a tactic (asymmetrical domination of the field of battle) to carry out the strategy of demoralizing and intimidating a poorly-organized and poorly-motivated enemy.

Tactically, Dresden was a militarily unimportant center of art and commerce that was not significantly contributing to the war effort. But then, the Third Reich was making no indication that they had any interest, strategically, in armistice or surrender. They were also ramping up production of weapons intended for trans-channel terror campaigns and were using rocket interceptors and other weapons of desperation that indicated a desire to go down nobly swinging. Remember: by the time Dresden was bombed, the Allies had invaded Germany through the Netherlands and would have captured the Ruhr Valley if the Nazis hadn't chosen to flood it themselves to buy time. The Germans had lost. There was no possible way the 3rd Reich could win anything. And remember: in a similar position in WWI, the Germans had chosen to fight trench warfare for three. horrible. years.

So strategically, you begin Sherman's March to the Sea.

Strategically, you salt the earth.

Strategically, you bring the war right the fuck to the hearth and homes of those gentle people who stood idly by as their neighbors were turned into lampshades.

Strategically, you grab your enemy by the lapels and make him suffer in ways he cannot handle. There's about a thousand pages of evil shit I could write here, but the bottom line is this:

Dresden wouldn't have been bombed if Dresden didn't need bombing. You think 3900 tons of ordnance comes cheaply? Was throwing over 700 heavy bombers into the sky over Germany a casual action?

The Germans bet the farm and lost. The only reason they bet the farm in the first place was they'd bet the farm 25 years previously and nobody had the materiel or will to make them lose.

They figured they could get away with it again. They didn't. It left their country a smoking hole. It's a terrible tragedy of human life, an outsized catastrophe for all mankind, and wholly and completely just. For every person who died in the bombing of Dresden, 44 people lost their lives IN AUSCHWITZ ALONE.

The Purple Hearts given out this month were manufactured in 1945 in anticipation of the Invasion of Japan. Operation Downfall was predicted to cost the United States a half million young men. In all the wars we've fought since, we have yet to scratch the pile of commemorative medals we created to honor their sacrifice. Instead, we turned two cities in Japan into radioactive glass and the world you live in is a direct consequence.

It's fashionable to point the finger at the United States and talk about atrocities. It's fashionable to argue that WWII ended the way it did because we were already fighting a Cold War with Russia. It's fashionable to know nothing about Dresden that you didn't read in Slaughterhouse Five but it's fucking insulting to pay passing lip service to the apocalyptic genocides perpetrated by every member of the Axis powers. Yes - absolutely. The Allied powers did some downright inhuman shit in pursuit of victory. But it's not like the United States invaded Poland and exterminated six million people.

Go read Farewell to Manzanar and recognize that the United States did some really shitty things to people who really didn't deserve it in the name of national security. Then go read The Diary of Anne Frank and recognize that sometimes, evil is graded on a curve.

You know what really pisses me off?

A cultural rather than industrial centre, Dresden was previously known as the ‘Florence of the Elbe’ due to its many museums and beautiful buildings.

As if the caliber of your architecture determines the value of your dead. After all, fuck the jews, they all lived in ghettos anyway - But Dresden! That shit's was the Hapsburgs' finest!