Apocalpse at Dresden (long)

Esquire | November 1963 | R.H.S. Crossman

[BufordP]

You have zero pity or compassion for children, burned to death because they were born in Germany?

Put the onus on those who invited their own destruction.

[Publius6961]

The Blitz and the Final Solution defined as dabbling?

Of course.
Those with the agenda to demonize the victors (whatever their motivation, I have my theories) will with a straight face say the most outrageous things.

This is preparation to try and head off the only demonstrably effective way to defeat a people who have been whipped into an emotional frenzy with the double delusion of world domination and cultural superiority.
Anything current sound familiar?
By stone age barbarians barely a stone's throw from the stone age?
Hmmmmmm?

[Publius6961]

and the resulting arguments about "victor's justice".

Sounds innocent enough.
Please excuse my total and complete skepticism, however.

[Arkle]

This is preparation to try and head off the only demonstrably effective way to defeat a people who have been whipped into an emotional frenzy with the double delusion of world domination and cultural superiority.

The article was written in 1963.

[Publius6961]

And the Final Solution was not a bombing raid and is not the subject of this article.

You are one scary m***********.
The subject of the article is needless civilian deaths.

Your clintonesque word play nonwithstanding, most of us can see through your cynical attempt to obfuscate and derail.

I just haven't figured out the agenda yet.
It can't be anything as crass a Arab money...

Can it?

[Publius6961]

means you are a Commie, Pinko, maggot-infested, dope-smoking Hippie. This philosophy is known as "conservativism."

And that technique is known as changing the subject and plain old fashioned unadorned demagoguing propaganda.

[Publius6961]

You have zero pity or compassion for children, burned to death because they were born in Germany?

Putting words in other people's mouths in order to then sermonize is the sign of an intellectual coward and a mental eunuch.
Surely you can scrape up a counterattack on what he actually said! Even a pathetic one would be an improvement.

[Publius6961]

The article was written in 1963.

We knew that.
I was referring to the purpose of dragging it out all hoary and dusty, today.

[dfwgator]

Don't forget that some of those pilots who bombed Dresden also pulled Berliners chestnuts out of the fire during the Berlin airlift.

[Mr. Bird]

And the Final Solution was not a bombing raid and is not the subject of this article.

The author is using a bombing raid to illustrate a point, one which claims that the Allies were, at the least, just as bad as their foes. He's essentially calling the Allies murderous barbarians. I dispute that.

[Savage Beast]

War is Hell.

The story of Dresden is a glimpse of it.

Hell is more horrible and more horrifying than the human mind can imagine.

Dresden and the other horrors of World War II would not have happened if Hitler and his Nazis had been stopped before they acquired enough power to make it happen--if the world had listened to people like Winston Churchill instead of the likes of Neville Chamberlain.

Hitler and his Nazis are not unique. Such people have been a part of the human race since its beginning, and they no doubt always will be. They are with us now. Such people must be stopped before they can gain enough power to wreak hell on earth.

Bin Ladin and his Al-Qaida terrorists are a contemporary recrudescence of this, as murderous and blood-thirsty as any Hitler or any Nazis. The trappings and rhetoric may differ, but they are the same people. They must be stopped now, before they can acquire more power. But defeating and neutralizing them will not prevent another Dresden from happening. Other, similar monsters will arise to take their place and, if they can, wreak more hell upon the earth.

George Bush understands this. And he understands the importance of stopping these people now, no matter what the cost, because the cost of not stopping them will continue to increase until we face another Dresden or Heroshima.

If the world is never to experience another Dresden--or Hamburg or Wurzburg--or Heroshima or Nagasaki--if it is never to experience another Auschwitz or Dachau--or Nanking--or Stalingrad or Leningrad--and pray right now that it never does!--it will be because of people like George Bush, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman--and IN SPITE OF people like Neville Chamberlain.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Sure, I can regret (vicariously, of course) the killing of innocents in Dresden and elsewhere, but I won't stand for this type of moral equivalence (or worse!) argument.

Well said.

[Savage Beast]

Yes, we all know--and know too well--that The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions--and the Appeasers of the world, with their Good Intentions, if allowed to lead, will take us all directly into another Dresden or Hiroshima or Dachau. This article and discussion are timely. Arkle, thanks for posting it.

[Arthur McGowan]

Just wait. You will see precisely the kind of posts I am predicting.

There are many, many people who consider themselves "conservative" who are not. A true conservative is opposed to MURDER. There are many "conservatives" who favor murder, if it is done by the "right people"--e.g., Presidents of the U.S. bombing civilians, police removing rescuers from the doors of an abortion mill, etc. These are both examples of murder, yet there are plenty of "conservatives" who defend them.

[sickenedbrit]

I don't know who decided to post Dick Crossman's 1963 article on Dresden but there WAS a moral equilvalence. Blitzkrieg tactics involved destroying the enemy ariy in the field. The Area Bombing was intended to destroy the city centres and each residential area sector by sector. Noone survived at the fire Storms centre, the casualty rate was 100%. if this isn't a war crime what is?

[medusa]

This is preparation to try and head off the only demonstrably effective way to defeat a people who have been whipped into an emotional frenzy with the double delusion of world domination and cultural superiority. Anything current sound familiar?

Hmmmm. Does that mean that we should expect fire-bombings of our major cities?

Interesting article: poignant.