The Allied Area Bombing Narrative

[Cornfed]

As we know, the Western Allied side killed possibly millions of innocent people in Germany and Japan in WWII by bombing cities from aeroplanes. I just wanted to know whether people here thought it was justified.

The argument generally given is this one. The area bombing campaign was started by the British. They needed a way to rally the people and show them they were striking back against the Germans. To start with, the only way was by bombing. They tried bombing by day, which they could accurately do using optical sites, but this proved unsustainable, since they were losing huge numbers of bombers to German fighters, and they had no fighters with a long range capacity to protect them.

Hence instead they tried bombing by night. They at first hilariously posited that they could do this by map and compass navigation. Of course, they missed whole cities. So what were they to do? The solution was area bombing. Suppose you want to shut down a factory in a town. If you tried to bomb it using conventional technology on the time, you had no chance. Your bombs would mostly fall in empty land. But if you area bombed the town, then some bombs might be targeted on the West side of the town that actually fall on the East and vice versa. Some would crater roads and kill factory workers. Some would lead to a shortage of workers as they would have to repair stuff and cater to their dead and injured relatives. Or at least that was the alleged thinking.

Even when there was radio guidence systems to allow them to bomb specific targets at night, the West insisted on killing huge amounts of civilian by using area bombing, most evidently by the Americans copying the British tactics in the firestorming raids over Japan. You tell me. Were they right to do this, or were they war criminals, like a prominent one of them, Robert MacNamara, said?

[droid]

Hypocrite criminals

[Cornfed]

Hypocrite criminals

Well, that's what I think of course, but could you expand on that?

[Adama]

No, it is pure hatred against the Germans. Just like when they told the Russian soldiers to rape the German women (which they actually did), and when Eisenhower ordered the starvation of the German prisoners of war in the Rhineland. There was no justification for bombing civilians. The Allies had radar, they cracked the German secret Enigma codes. They were going to win anyway.

[droid]

Hypocrite criminals

Well, that's what I think of course, but could you expand on that?

Well, they use(d) selective morality and half truths to justify the savagery, depending on what's convenient. A few things come to mind, I deviate a little here but it's important in that it ultimately relates to the mentioned bombing:

-Painting Hitler as the devil for the Reich's racial laws, when the US had similar ones (regardless of one agreeing with said codes or not).
Small anecdote is how FDR was the one that snubbed J. Owens, not Hitler.

-Decrying the treatment of homosexuals under fascism, then proceed to f**k up Alan Turing as a thank you for the Enigma work.

-The selective morality of applying "might is right" when successfully attacking others, but crying foul and "immorality" when not in their favor or if not by
"approved" methods.

-Again, "might is right" applied or decried, depending on whether certain groups need to be attacked or defended.

-Letting the Soviet Union INVADE SEVEN COUNTRIES in the 1930's and kill millions, but Germany going into Poland was unacceptable.

It's late, that's just off the top of my head, corrections welcome.