June 23, 1994
Editor
The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario
Dear Sir:
H. C. Chadderton (Letters, June 18, 1994) in responding to the publication
of the "Crucible of War" astonishingly defends the bombing of
German civilians on the grounds that they "made the weapons of death
for German war machine".
Surely, this is carrying the pro-bombing argument to extremes. To accept
that civilians should be killed indiscriminately because a few among them
were employed in the war effort is totally indefensible both militarily
and morally.
Dresden, the target of the most murderous Allied bombing attack, posed
no threat to the Allied campaign and was known to be packed with refugees
fleeing from the East. Its destruction and the accompanying massive slaughter
of women and children served no military purpose.
In any case, debate on the subject is worse than futile since it distracts
the reader from the far more basic and important issue of why we were attacking
Germany in the first place. The official explanation is that Britain and
France declared war on Germany to defend the independence of Poland and
to "save civilization".
Oddly, however, the Allies did not declare war on the Soviet Union, although
it took part simultaneously on the attack on Poland. Subsequently, long
before the war's end, the Allies ceded all of Poland to Stalin, showing
clearly that the guaranty of independence was a hypocritical sham, as were
all the other official pretexts.
Sincerely,
Ian Macdonald