war crimes

[a1ex2001]

Afghans can't be pacified, the whole country is just an area of land and not what anyone could call an actual country, its like this due to the way people are who live there, tribal and insular with loyalty people in other coutries would show to their nation only shown to the tribe, tribal associations are only of convienience through marriage, financial deals and mutual protection form other tribes or groups. The arrangements fall down for the most simple reasons and can never be relied on.

You do realise that the vast majority of the people in Afghanistan do not need to be pacified don't you? Most of the people who live there are just like me and you normal people who want to get on with their lives, it is just unfortunate for them that the country was first used as a proxy war bettween America and Russia then after the Americans abandoned them there country was over run by the Taliban most of whom didn't even come from Afghanistan. Finally America decided to return to hunt down Osama who again isn't an Afghan and when the people finally thought they were free of the Taliban the American abandoned them again to go and fight a war in Iraq.

The people of Afghanistan are not iherently violent, they are just incredibly poor and unfortunate enough to have been used as pawns in a number of bettles that don't really interest them.

 

[Hitman_Leon]

You do realise that the vast majority of the people in Afghanistan do not need to be pacified don't you?

I know this, but I mean in my post is pacified like western populations, loosing the tribal system of loyalty, vendetta's and blood stained grudges will probably never happen, its the way their peoples (many different races and religious sub groups) have always been even without ouside influence or invaders.

 

[a1ex2001]

I know this, but I mean in my post is pacified like western populations, loosing the tribal system of loyalty, vendetta's and blood stained grudges will probably never happen, its the way their peoples (many different races and religious sub groups) have always been even without ouside influence or invaders.

I still think you need to read up on the people of modern Afghanistan, yes it is a very poor country but it isn't quite as backwards as you seem to think it is.

Education is the key to the future of Afghanistan and by that I mean both within the country and in the rest of the world we need to help educate the Children of Afghanistan so they more options and don't fall into the hands of the middle eastern funded madrassahs and also educating people in the west so we understand that Muslim does not mean Terrorist and that all Afghans are not merderous taliban nut jobs.

I'd hardly call western populations pacified either, America has one of the highest muder rates in the world and while every day UK citizens don't dirty their hands with war we do fund an army hat on our behalf storms round the world killing Thousands.

 

[Stewy]

Can't really find anything interesting on Easy Company online, other than the horrible hollywood-esque stuff.

Anyone recommend me something slightly more interesting (gritty?). Preferably online too I'm not gonna buy the book...

 

[a1ex2001]

Can't really find anything interesting on Easy Company online, other than the horrible hollywood-esque stuff.

Anyone recommend me something slightly more interesting (gritty?). Preferably online too I'm not gonna buy the book...

Easy company in general were pretty clean but for example Speirs shot one of his own men dead and killed a number of prisioners of war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Speirs. There are other examples but those stand out, bad things happen in war and both sides are always guilty of things that in peace time would be considered terrible crimes. When the war ends the victors tend to bury their crimes and punish those of the enemy and even then they will happily supress those of the enemy if they think the person who committed them is useful like many nazi and japanese scientist were.

 

[Johno please?]

Or a more recent incident that nobody has even mentioned yet, the horrific actions of the Serbs & Croats in Bosnia, highly organised ethnic cleansing and genocide less than 20 years ago.

C'mon lets not beat about the bush, it was Religious cleansing involving Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians.

 

[Stolly]

The Allied bombing of Dresden is most definitely a war crime as was the cabinet decision to bomb all of Germany's cities whether or not they had any strategic significance, factories or rail yards that transferred troops to the fronts.

Anyone wanting to know of the Russian rape of German women should read Antony Beevor's 'Berlin'. Oops, already mentioned. It is one of those books that is easy to get into and hard to put down.

If you can point me to a town, either in todays UK or 1940's Germany that doesn't or didn't have a factory in it i'd love to know its name. The attack on Dresden was no different in its execution to a dozen or more from 1943 onwards, and in fact a Carl Zeiss plant producing the optics for submarine periscopes and panzer targeting optics was destroyed.

The single remarkable fact about Dresden was that it escaped major damage before then.

 

[Von Smallhausen]

The Allied bombing of Dresden is most definitely a war crime as was the cabinet decision to bomb all of Germany's cities whether or not they had any strategic significance, factories or rail yards that transferred troops to the fronts.

Dresden was a major transport and communication hub as well as containing tens of thousands of workers that contributed to the German war effort and was one of about 60 towns and cities marked for destruction.

That said, Dresden has long since been argued as having little or no strategic importance and while the bombing raid was not the most destructive of the war, the targetting of civilians has always been a highly controversial subject that has attracted debate over accusations of war crimes.

 

[Glaucus]

Dresden was a major transport and communication hub as well as containing tens of thousands of workers that contributed to the German war effort and was one of about 60 towns and cities marked for destruction.

Exactly, all very easy to criticise 40 years latter when we forget tat everyone is working for the war effort and forget how poor technology was.
In relation to world war, people seem to forget civilians are not civilians. They are the workers that manufacture the weapons and machines, they transport the goods, grow the food and do everything in the background that the war effort needs. When 96% of GDP is going on the war effort. Then such cities are valid targets. Especially when you consider the bombs of the era and that you where lucky to fall within 4 miles of the target.