"Legitimate target"
There is no legitimacy in the deliberate slaughter of civilians. No matter the politics, race, religion or the actions of the enemy. No matter the outcome of the war. Killing defenseless men, women and children is pure evil regardless of the rationale behind it. Regardless of how and where and why they are killed. Pure evil.
I would argue that stopping a war machine, in any way necessary, that was responsible for horrific crimes almost beyond imagining makes bombing them legitimate. Dresden was a major marshaling center for troop/materials transport, industry, and the technology for high accuracy bombing did not exist at the time.
I imagine if you were on the field of battle, or one of the ones left waiting for slaughter in a K-camp, you'd have some interest in the outcome of the war. You'd probably have interest just being alive at the time cause there was always the chance you'd end up as Soylent Green if one of the Master Races decided you were undesirable.
Oh and BTW "History" is a guy you meet when you get your nose out of computer games and into books. For decades the casualties of Dresden were inflated by far, by as much as 8 or 10 times what they actually were. The actual toll is in the area of 20,000 and perhaps if the Germans wouldnt have invented terror bombing of cities much of it wouldnt have happened. Twice that number of civilians died in the Warsaw bombings and shellings of 1939 and 1,000 innocents died when the Luftwaffe terror bombed Rotterdam in 1940. About 30,000 British during the Nazi Blitz including over 5,000 children.
American strategic nuclear doctrine from the 1950s until....now...?...has targeted cities, rather than military sites, in the event of "nuclear combat toe-to-toe with the Russkies."
Nope your wrong. There are numerous war plans should things go that hot. The destruction of civilian targets is only one of them and would only happen if they targeted ours first.
