Civilian Casualties Quotes
On March 9-10, 1945, over three hundred B-29 Superfortresses, loaded with 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs flew over Tokyo bombing the city in waves for 6 hours. Over 250,000 buildings were destroyed and more people killed than would be in either Hiroshima or Nagasaki which were destroyed by atomic bombs. The fact that the Japanese would not surrender even after such complete destruction of their capital and largest industrial city, was used by American leaders in assessing whether to use the atomic bomb afterwards. There were many who believed that the atomic bomb would not be enough for motivate a Japanese surrender as Japanese culture prohibited surrender. Indeed, even after the 1st atomoc bomb, the Japanese did not surrender, and after the 2nd, the war council was split 3-3 and the Emperor historically broke the tie. Even the atomic bomb might not have worked. Later generations found this resistance to surrender hard to understand but Japanese culture was amazingly strong then.
Fundamentalist Muslims, like fundamentalist Jews, believe that all body parts must be buried together and these young Iranian “martyrs” were being blown to bits, thus denying them a proper Islamic burial. This was a problem which the Iranians remedied. What is fascinating about this quotation is that the proper burial was the only perceived problem that needed solving—not the fact that Iran was sacrificing tens of thousands of children to clear minefields with their bodies and certain death. The proprietary of this never received much thought. See {619826} for the leadership perception.
Germany had invaded and occupied much of Europe. These two fronts accounted for the majority of the German casualties. The Germans not only violated the Geneva Convention and the Laws of War repeatedly, but as you can see from this quotation, it was deliberate policy. Keitel was tried and hanged after the war. See {621438} .
See a similar sentiment by Tallyrand
This is true. There never has been any International law that made a belligerent responsible for civilian damages and deaths that were the result of collateral damage. However, the United States over the years, more so than any other country. Provided huge amount of aid to the citizens of the enemy nations although there was no legal obligation to do so.
While not all Islamic Religious legal authorities agree any more than Christian or Jewish religious experts do, this quotation is often used to illustrate that the militant Muslim fundamentalists would not only use a nuclear or other kind of weapon if they could get and deliver one, but that some actually think that would be a moral act. He gives no source for his 10 million estimate and most observers think the number wildly exaggerated, And most of the weapons in the world that end up killing people are small arms, made mostly by China, Russia and other nations providing more than the United States. But in politics, and especially in the middle East, perception is reality. See {585931}.
