ZGram 0 9/26/2001 - "Truth as the first casualty in war"

[Ingrid Rimland]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

September 26, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Today's Zgram is a Letter sent to Arizona Republic, 9/21/01 by one of my
diligent researchers who surfs the Internet for me:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------

To the editor,

  In his article "We didn't do anything wrong," that appeared in the
Thursday, Sep. 20th edition of the Arizona Republic, columnist Leonard
Pitts wrote:

 "...we don't willfully rain carnage on civilians... When forced to take up
arms, we attempt to limit our military actions to military targets.  Yes,
innocents sometimes die regardless of our best intentions.  But for all our
transgressions, we don't sanction the murder of those who have neither the
capacity nor the intention to harm us."

 Can Pitts actually believe what he wrote?

 Good heavens, Leonard, have you never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

 Civilians did not die there incidental to the destruction of military
targets.   They WERE the target.  ...And this after Japan's willingness to
accept our basic surrender terms was well known to our leadership.

 Sir Basil H. Liddell Hart, in his "History of the Second World War," wrote:

 In the Tokyo fire bombing of Mar. 9, 1945, "The civilian casualties were
approximately 185,000 - whereas the American attackers lost only 14
aircraft.  In the next nine days the cities of Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya were
similarly devastated."

 It is worth mentioning that the loss of only 14 aircraft clearly shows
that the attack was made on a virtually undefended city.

 In Germany things were even worse.   Some estimates place the German
deaths caused by Allied bombing at well over two million.

 Almost all of these were civilian deaths.

 Almost all were women, children, and men unfit for military service
because of age or infirmity.   And that number does not include the
wounded, disfigured, maimed for life, etc.

 Every highly populated city in Germany became a target of what was called
"saturation bombing" or "carpet bombing" (the allies' own terms).

 Benjamin Colby in his "'Twas a Famous Victory", Arlington House, 1974,
wrote:

 "On March 15 (1944), the air columnist for the New York Herald-Tribune
laid allied bombing on the line: 'The destruction of Germany - all of
Germany - has begun... It is a total war against the German people.  It is
a war on plants, houses, churches, public buildings, parks, hospitals,
orphanages... civilian and soldiers alike.  When we finish with Berlin, we
must move on to the next city.'"

 The city of Dresden was the pi=CBce de r=C8sistance.  An estimated quarter =
of
a million people died there in the firebombing raids of February 13 & 14,
1945, most of them women and children - most burnt alive with incendiary
bombs intended for that purpose.

 In the light of our own recent WTC disaster in which many firefighters and
rescue workers lost their lives, consider the following:

 At Dresden... "The second bombing attack, chiefly with thermite incendiary
bombs, was set for three hours later, so that fire-fighting brigades and
relief suppliers which might arrive from other cities would themselves
become victims... The city was methodically carpeted by incendiary bombs,
and a master bomber directed the attacking planes to peripheral areas that
were not yet in flames.  The resulting firestorm was of indescribable
immensity.  Returning bombers could see the glare for 150 miles." -
Benjamin Colby, op.cit.

 MUCH more could be written on this and other allied atrocities, compared
with which, those of our 'enemies' seem quite mild in comparison (after one
blows away the perennial propaganda smoke screen).

 ...And I haven't yet mentioned the more recent atrocities such as our
embargo and bombing of Iraq which have left hundreds of thousands dead,
most of them civilians, most of them children.

 Let us indeed mourn the terrible loss of life in the WTC attack. Let us
indeed seek retribution against the perpetrators of that outrageous crime.

 But, in the process, let us not become sanctimonious hypocrites, claiming
a moral high ground we do not possess.

 It is said that, in war, truth is the first casualty.  Does it have to be?

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Thought for the Day:

There is not darkness enough to put out the light of one candle.

(Sent to the Zundelsite)