So you think that Kurt was a witness while being an imprisoned POW?
He witnessed the carnage first-hand. He could be considered an expert as to what regions were hit and who was affected. From his accounts, there were many civilians and few Military personnel in the corpse pile. For me, that is the most important factor. It might not be the most important factor for everyone, though.
Fascinating account if you ask me. Yet it does not include the discussions and strategic decisions that were going on at the time nor do they address the facts that if you don’t want to see your cities destroyed, don’t start a WORLD WAR right?
I don't disagree with this. But the civilians who died, and the vast majority of the Dresden casualties were civilians, had no choice in the matter. They were innocent bystanders.
The strategic importance is secondary to this, in my opinion.
Once again, the argument that these bombings served no value in the vacuum of the historic record hardly make a coherent argument that this was somehow a "war crime" or your words, and "atrocity."
I wouldn't call it a war crime, per se, but anytime civilians are targeted, it is an atrocity to me.
I think there is little doubt that Dresden was a targeting of civilians. The evidence of what was hit and how pretty much makes that case.
But I like you Tucker, so I will leave you with your OPINION and I mine.
I like you too, bro!
And I wholeheartedly admit that it is my opinion, and that what I'm saying is not "fact". I think that any discussion of subjective terms such as "atrocity" is purely base don opinions and not set-in-stone fact.
I have my opinion, you have yours. Both opinions are
based on facts, they just undergo different interpretations based on our own views of things.
I wouldn't say your opinion is wrong, I would just say it's different than mine.
But I categorically reject the farcical statement that bombing Dresden was an atrocity. It does not meet the definition and is a trite attempt to rationalize that which had no rationale, the starting of a World War Conflict and the subsequent results of what happens when you do.
I don't think that the actual bombing of Dresden was the atrocity so much as the people that it killed.
To me, they were simply the pawns of the evil men that ran Germany at the time. I don't feel that they were to blame, but they paid the ultimate price for the evil actions committed by their leaders.
I don't really lay blame for the atrocity squarely on the allied powers either, since the ultimate responsibility for WWII rests on the people who initiated it.
Atrocity is a sad fact of war, IMO. Usually both sides have some degree of blame. But typically, the most blame falls on the initiators of the conflict, IMO.
