Unlike the amoral philosophies of some military strategists, I cannot categorise intentional bombing of civilians as anything less than a terrorist act. That includes the London "Blitz", Dresden, Nagasaki, and recently Yugoslavia. All of these bombings carried the war mercilessly to non-combative women and children. They were barbaric acts.

After a good deal of digging for background information on this, I have been unable to find anything closely resembling a valid target in Dresden. If any readers out there have information that would identify a genuine military target in Dresden, other than local butcher shops and greengrocers, they've managed to keep it secret an awfully long time.

As it stands, there appear to have been two primary objectives in Dresden. The first was to demonstrate clear air superiority, raining death from above to demoralise German citizens and in turn their leaders. The second was to do this in sight of the Soviet column nearby, to show the Soviets that they should not assume they could freely overrun too much European real estate. In any case, the targets were non-combatants, and the morality of the bombing is and was reprehensible.

William Hogarth and a number of others have challenged my conclusions, citing a lack of evidence to support ill intent. From all accounts, the "firebombing" was unprecedented in scale and scope, with the civilian population targeted. Over 100,000 casualties resulted. What conceivable outcomes other than death and terror could have been intended?