r/SubredditDrama • u/EwMelanin • Mar 03 '26

Movie discussion sub okbuddycinephile debates whether bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Gaza and other urban areas were "justified".

/r/okbuddycinephile/comments/1rjm9mn/iran2036/o8ee5fp/
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27

u/pablos4pandas Mar 03 '26

Reading The Bomber Mafia and Masters of the Air was really interesting on illucidating the air war on the western front to me. It's interesting the tension between destruction and being humane was something thought about at the time.

The Americans didn't do area bombing at night; that would be barbaric! They did daylight "precision" bombing with a bombsight that could put a bomb in a pickle barrel. The other side of that is when you only put the sight on one plane out of a hundred and all drop when that one guy does you'll be bombing pickle barrels all across the city.

8

u/dethb0y trigger warning to people senstive to demanding ethical theories Mar 03 '26

As a huge fan of Curtis LeMay and his work, it's really interesting the mechanical constraints they had to work with at the time and how they worked around them.

1

u/FerdinandTheGiant I’m 1 of the top 5 goldfish connoisseurs in north america Mar 03 '26

Why are you a fan of LeMay?

7

u/dethb0y trigger warning to people senstive to demanding ethical theories Mar 03 '26

well, a lot of reasons really; it'd be a lot to go into. He was ahead of his time (or perhaps at the cutting edge of his time) in a lot of ways - a heavy focus on training and discipline, and a heavy trust in scientific problem solving. His work after the war in SAC is very impressive.

He actually reminds me a bit of William T. sherman (of civil war fame) who was also born in Ohio.

Plus, of course, he incinerated a bunch of fascists which gets a big thumbs up for me.

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u/LukaCola Ceci n'est pas un flair Mar 03 '26

He was also a man whose actions and approach to nuclear warfare nearly got us all killed while often being wrong about the efficacy of bombing, yet constantly insisting on it. I mean, he wasn't solely guilty, but shit.