Dresden marks anniversary of WWII bombings

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by August

Only because you're looking at it with hindsight. Wonderful thing that hindsight. It allows you to make all sorts of moral judgments from the comfort of your living room without recognizing that things weren't all that clear at the time they were happening

I have to jump in here, but what is wrong with the 'other side' wondering, or questioning the events as they happened, or to offer some more thought to the subject?
I think that this sort of thing seems to happen quiet regularly, and i'm not picking on you August, but i have had many a discussion about WW2, as i am sure a lot of you have had too, but it seems to me that us Germans, and non-Germans who some like to call "sympathizers",
when we question history, or to offer our point of view are advised very diplomatically, or indirectly, or more extremely in other cases to cease questioning history, to accept all the accounts and just deal with it, well then, i have an issue with that.
I am certain that that is not what you are intending to do here August, i may have taken your post wrongly, or read it in a different context but it is not hard to do so.
I understand that in your post which i quoted you close in saying that things weren't all that clear at the time that they were happening, which seems to take a lot of the 'sting' if you will out of the quote.
Correct me if i'm wrong but is one not able to offer some free speech to the discussion of Dresden's Events, or to offer one's notions or feelings toward the subject?
Or is it wrong and forbidden to offer one's personal views, (within reason ofc) on the Dresden subject, without getting the feeling that it is wrong because us Germans or those that side with some of our feelings towards some of these discussions are unequivably wrong and how dare they question anything that the Mighty Allies have written.
Sorry August i am not taking you to task personally, maybe i took your post wrongly, it's just that i have seen this all too often before, attempting to have mature and open-sided discussions about things like this and then getting sarcastic or close-minded replies, or being made to feel bad because i or anyone else has questioned anything that may be construed as questioning the history of WW2 and in particular the German side of things.
I hope i haven't put you off, but this is how i feel.

[August]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

I have to jump in here, but what is wrong with the 'other side' wondering, or questioning the events as they happened, or to offer some more thought to the subject?
I think that this sort of thing seems to happen quiet regularly, and i'm not picking on you August, but i have had many a discussion about WW2, as i am sure a lot of you have had too, but it seems to me that us Germans, and non-Germans who some like to call "sympathizers",
when we question history, or to offer our point of view are advised very diplomatically, or indirectly, or more extremely in other cases to cease questioning history, to accept all the accounts and just deal with it, well then, i have an issue with that.
I am certain that that is not what you are intending to do here August, i may have taken your post wrongly, or read it in a different context but it is not hard to do so.
I understand that in your post which i quoted you close in saying that things weren't all that clear at the time that they were happening, which seems to take a lot of the 'sting' if you will out of the quote.
Correct me if i'm wrong but is one not able to offer some free speech to the discussion of Dresden's Events, or to offer one's notions or feelings toward the subject?
Or is it wrong and forbidden to offer one's personal views, (within reason ofc) on the Dresden subject, without getting the feeling that it is wrong because us Germans or those that side with some of our feelings towards some of these discussions are unequivably wrong and how dare they question anything that the Mighty Allies have written.
Sorry August i am not taking you to task personally, maybe i took your post wrongly, it's just that i have seen this all too often before, attempting to have mature and open-sided discussions about things like this and then getting sarcastic or close-minded replies, or being made to feel bad because i or anyone else has questioned anything that may be construed as questioning the history of WW2 and in particular the German side of things.
I hope i haven't put you off, but this is how i feel.

You haven't put me off my friend. My comments were aimed more at those who want to politicize that tragedy and others for contemporary purposes.

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by August

You haven't put me off my friend. My comments were aimed more at those who want to politicize that tragedy and others for contemporary purposes.

Understand, thank you for clarifying that, it is very hard to understand the 'context' of online conversations

[August]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

Understand, thank you for clarifying that, it is very hard to understand the 'context' of online conversations

It is.

FWIW though I sympathize with the German POV more than you may think. I'm half German myself and could very easily have had relatives in Dresden when that tragedy unfolded.

Between 1936 and 1945 well over 200 urban centres worldwide were immolated from the air, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of homeless civilians.

Had this thread used the anniversary of the controversial raid on Dresden to commemorate all the victims of the strategic bomber everywhere, there would have been little to add but 'thumbs up'.

It can always be disputed whether the Dresden raid was necessary or not but I would submit that in that place and time, the level of violence engendered by six-years of total war had assumed a momentum of its own and so it was probably inevitable. At this scale of disaster and distance in time concepts like right and wrong tend to become so blurred as to be meaningless as we apply our emotions to what we think we know.

It is worth noting that on the night of the Dresden firestorm, Bomber Command also sent almost 400 bombers against the town of Bohlen, near Leipzig. Bombing through 100% undercast, the attack missed the synthetic oil refinery that was its intended target and the bombing was widely scattered and largely ineffective. Since it is in-conceivable that there were no civilian casualties at Bohlen, so they too share this anniversery and yet are forgotten since Dresden gets all the press coverage. Are not the victims of Bohlen deserving of the same rememberance as the dead of Dresden?

We should well remember all those who died as a result of the strategic bomber whether in the air or on the ground and 13 February is as good a day as any and better than most. However we should also beware of hyperbole, arbitrary value judgements and 20/20 hindsight as discussion points for this very sensitive topic, they add nothing to the dialog.

Cheers