An interesting article appeared this week in Philadelphia Inquirer. Click the link above.
WWII 'area bombing' comes under philosophical attack
With dexterity and detail, a moralist judges the Allies.
By Carlin Romano
Inquirer Book Critic
Among the Dead CitiesThe History and Moral Legacyof the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and JapanBy A.C. Grayling
Walker. 361 pp. $25.95
The moral dilemmas of war and how it should be fought probably date from the first Neanderthal tempted to drop a boulder on his enemy's head or set fire to his enemy's cave and family.
In the millennia since, one fundamental philosophical clash has been between the notion that, as the Romans put it, inter arma silent leges - "in time of war, the laws are silent," so anything goes - and the persistent belief that, even in war, acting ethically equals being civilized.
