Why the USA is a disgrace

[Thumpalumpacus]

The US airfleet was almost half the planes that participated in the mass carpet bombing of Dresden in Germany, which was clearly aimed at civilians.

I don't know as much about the Japanese war as I do about Europe. In Europe, the US airforce was less indiscriminate as the British. Harris' outspoken goal was to unleash terror on civilians. The American goal was precision bombing, whatever that meant with the equipment they had back then. Yes, the participated in the bombing of Dresden, but they weren't the ones working on the firestorm, which killed most of the civilians. That again was a british recipe.

The American dropped HE demolition bombs mixed with incendiaries at Dresden. How precise were their intentions?

To make it clear: the HE bombs were delayed-fuse. The idea was to set the building alight with the incendiaries, and then when the HE bomb went off, it would fling burning embers and spread the fire.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

I'm fairly certain the South Koreans, who are among the most productive peoples per capita, are quite happy that the US got involved in their fight against the Kims.

You think so? Maybe in hindsight and with most of the ones having suffered through these years dead. But, I'm not sure, if they were happy over the American puppet (a christian) being installed as their president back then. And over him instantly installing a police state, brutally crashing down onn every kind of opposition. I'm also not sure, if they were happy over the millions of casualties, after their country had been overrun from border to border twice in a row with neither side paying much attention to civilians.

You do realize all of Korea would be ruled by the Kims now?

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Yeah pretty much to all of this.

Because one group of people being bad means everyone should be bad. Sound logic right there

You wouldn't want to be less bad when the baddest bully is looking at you.

[Jello]

Because one group of people being bad means everyone should be bad. Sound logic right there

You wouldn't want to be less bad when the baddest bully is looking at you.

Weirdly enough, fighting said bully doesn't mean you punch his toddler brother in the face.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

I don't know as much about the Japanese war as I do about Europe. In Europe, the US airforce was less indiscriminate as the British. Harris' outspoken goal was to unleash terror on civilians. The American goal was precision bombing, whatever that meant with the equipment they had back then. Yes, the participated in the bombing of Dresden, but they weren't the ones working on the firestorm, which killed most of the civilians. That again was a british recipe.

I think the difference was in part racism.  The Japanese weren't white.  The Japanese were also racist. The Japanese rules of engagement were more brutal than those in Europe.  It was a nastier war in the Pacific, on both sides.

This, exactly! It was actually racism, which had festered under too many decades of Japanese isolationist policies (the US was like that prior to WWI) plus delusions encouraged by emperor-worship which gave them the balls to take on the US military at Pearl Harbor. They found out that white US soldiers could be just as racist and nasty with them, and then more so when they had the badder weapons. The lesson is if you are going to attack a foreign nation just because you think your people are racially better, you still would do better to make sure you have the most effective weapons as well, plus smarter strategies than suicide kamikaze morons who can't even fly their death-planes well enough to kill anyone other than themselves.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

You wouldn't want to be less bad when the baddest bully is looking at you.

Weirdly enough, fighting said bully doesn't mean you punch his toddler brother in the face.

Sadly enough, it comes down to doing whatever it takes to not be taken yourself, and survive. Having the good sense and the restraint to do no worse than you must is what would have made the US better (we sure didn't need to use Oppenheimer's bombs against the Japanese, who we had already thoroughly defeated).

[Jello]

Weirdly enough, fighting said bully doesn't mean you punch his toddler brother in the face.

Sadly enough, it comes down to doing whatever it takes to not be taken yourself, and survive. Having the good sense and the restraint to do no worse than you must is what would have made the US better (we sure didn't need to use Oppenheimer's bombs against the Japanese, who we had already thoroughly defeated).

Exactly. I understand that in a survival situation, stuff gets desperate like that, but most of the events where the US did horrific things were when they were winning in both Europe and the Pacific.

[abaris]

 It was a nastier war in the Pacific, on both sides.

Except for the Russian front, I would say.

[Jello]

 It was a nastier war in the Pacific, on both sides.

Except for the Russian front, I would say.

Yeah. Both sides were brutal there. 
But then again, it's also where enormous shows of bravery happened. (Such as the men of the 12th German army, fighting right at the end of the war, to get people from Berlin to the Elbe, where they could surrender to the Americans, rather than die at the hands of the Russians. Saved at least 250,000 people, when two and a half million men were bearing down on berlin. Gotta say, they have my respect for that, as they were totally outgunned and outnumbered, but still fought to hold the corridor open.)

[abaris]

The American dropped HE demolition bombs mixed with incendiaries at Dresden. How precise were their intentions?

To make it clear: the HE bombs were delayed-fuse. The idea was to set the building alight with the incendiaries, and then when the HE bomb went off, it would fling burning embers and spread the fire.

Well, at least the allies acknowledged the fact by not adding the German bombings to the Nuremberg indictments. And again, I'm not sure how they handled it with Japan where they had tribunals too.