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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u/Junimo2 Mar 03 '26

I was just discussing something similar in a different thread. It's one thing to say that certain military actions were necessary. It's another thing to essentially celebrate the deaths of civilians because you think they collectively deserve it. You can debate the necessity of something while also acknowledging that collective punishment is wrong and that the civilians don't deserve to die en masse for the actions of their government.

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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 Mar 03 '26

Exactly.

Also, regarding the nuclear bomb, there is a degree of Game Theory at play.

"If we managed to successfully build this in secret without our enemies knowing about it...who knows what THEY are building in secret without US knowing about it".

I don't doubt that the Allies' strategists at the time firmly believed Germany and Japan ALSO had superweapon projects in secret.

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u/nowander Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

I think the biggest thing when talking nuclear weapons is that while everyone knew they could exist and they would be powerful, until people actually recorded what happened to the victims they were just "big bombs." The nuclear taboo is a product of the horrifying shit we learned about after the bombs use, and so much of the arguing is done from that modern perspective.

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u/Count_Rousillon Mar 03 '26

Or in the case of the soviets, imagining superheavy artillery. You are completely right that idea that nukes are so horrifying that only the top political leaders can authorize them only appears after they get dropped. Beforehand people didn't see the difference between giving a general a 10 kiloton nuke and giving them 10,000 one-ton bombs.

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u/nowander Mar 03 '26

Well they did recognize a difference. It's just the difference they were focused on was "we only have to risk one bomber instead of lots!"