Quote: the G-man said: In theory I'd like to think that a Freedom Fighter is someone who targets primarily oppressive governments and a terrorist is someone who intentionally targets noncombant civilians.
Quote: r3x29yz4a said: both have the same goals, just different beliefs in how to carry them out. The modern islamic terrorists started by just targeting the corrupt governments, but then felt the people's lack of support made them just as guilty. so, essentially it's all a matter of what they consider "innocent."
Also, keep in mind, they all see it as war. When we bombed Germany and Iraq we bombed innocents as well as the military. It didn't matter in war time to us.
In Germany and Iraq, innocents were "collateral damage," not the primary target.
Actually, Arthur "Bomber" Harris, chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command during WWII, did indeed want to bomb civilians. He thought that it would break the moral of the German population. However, it just made the Germans more willing to fight. USA tried first to only bomb strategic targets such as factories and military targets, but around 1944, USAAF adopted the British strategy. USA also bombed Tokyo and other Japanese towns, with houses mainly built with wood, with incendiary bomb (which killed more than the A-bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
You underestamate the viciousness of Gen. Harris. In in Dresden, a town with no military value, USA & UK created a firestorm, which either incinerates or suffocates all that are near. USA did the same to Tokyo.
I'm fully aware of Dresden, I just didn't mention it. But yeah, bombing Dresden was a war crime, like it or not. Bombing purely civilian targets is in most cases inexcusable IMO. Bombing military targets, dams, the war industry and the like is acceptable tough. I can also tolerate Dolittle's Tokyo Raiders, since USA needed a moral boost after Pearl Harbour, and as cynical it is, the use of A-bombs, since it ended the war and saved American soldiers who would've otherwise invaded. (Not to forget the idea of a situation with half or all Japan being occupied by the Soviet Union...)
BTW, I also have heard that the bombings over German towns (in general) didn't affect the war industry, or not much, 'cause Germany kept equipment underground. Not that it has relevance for the morality of bombing factories IMO.
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