Text 5406, 76 rader
Skriven 2004-11-27 16:31:00 av FRANK SCHEIDT (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOHN HULL
Ärende: Breaking News!
======================
-=> Quoting John Hull to Frank Scheidt <=-

 FS> Not necessary as it's *you* who are trying to convince *me* a 
 FS> crime was committed.  I have no particular interest in trying to 
 FS> convince *you* otherwise.
 
 >>LL>You know, as well as I, that American soldiers are not
 >>LL>trained to kill unarmed prisoners.  You know, as well as
 >>LL>I, that American soldiers who commit such war crimes can
 >>LL>be prosecuted.
 
 >>LL>My position is that American soldiers who commit such war
 >>LL>crimes should be prosecuted.  Now what is your position?
 
 >>JH>Your position is that you get a warm fuzzy knot in your gut 
 >>JH>whenever you think an American soldier has committed some kind of 
 >>JH>war crime or atrocity.
 
 >>LL>I am deeply saddened whenever I learn that one of our guys has
 >>LL>committed a war crime, or any other atrocity.
 
 FS>>So would *I*, Lee.  Where did this take place?  Are you talking
 FS>>about the war crime in WWII, the bombing of Dresden?
 
 LL>> Although I agree that the Allied bombing of Dresden was a war 
 LL>> crime, we are talking about a recent event in Iraq in which an 
 LL>> unarmed prisoner was executed by an American marine.

 JH> Lee doesn't give a damn about war crimes in WWII, that's old news.  He
 JH> is only interested in anything that will put the US in a bad light
 JH> TODAY. 
 FS> It took place sixty years ago, true, but OTOH that *was* a war 
 FS> crime on a massive scale.  The defensive shooting by that Marine 
 FS> was not a crime of any sort.

 JH> Have to disagree with you on Dresden.  

As you may recall, Charles Doll *also* disagreed with me WRT 
Dresden.  He stuck to his position.  I stuck to *mine*.  
BTW, my own brother, who served in the 101st Airborne and who was 
in the invasion of Normandy, disagreed with me.  He felt it was a 
justified military target.  So it's me against Charles Doll and 
my brother, both of whom are now dead WRT this matter.  It's one 
of those arguments which will probably never be solved.

However, let there be no mistake:  I don't consider that massive 
bombing to be an *American* war crime.  It was pushed and ordered 
by "Bomber" Harris the British military leader.  And as to whether 
or not it really *was* a war crime there are a lot of people on 
both sides of the argument.  Regardless of whether or not it 
*was*, I believe the American bombing crews were under the 
impression it was a proper military target ... actually "Bomber" 
Harris wanted to totally *demolish* Germany.

 JH> We did not start the practice
 JH> of making war on an enemy's civilian population.  The Germans and
 JH> Japanese are both guilty of that.  Just as we were accused of
 JH> unrestricted submarine warfare, when it was the German U-boat wolf
 JH> packs that perfected that little twist.  We were forced into a position
 JH> of total warfare because it was the only way to break the will of the
 JH> German people to support their government, and just as with the atom
 JH> bomb, it ultimately cost FEWER lives lost than would have occurred
 JH> otherwise. 
 
Absolutely!  Despite all the yakking against use of the atomic 
bomb in 1945 the day that happened was one of the happiest day in 
the army for most of us.  Our squadron was to be shipped to the 
South Pacific, something none of us were looking forward to.  
That bomb killed many thousands of people but in so-doing it 
saved *far* more, both Jap and American.

... "It's ME or that COMPUTER", she said.    I'll miss her ... [sigh] ...

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