Laos and Cambodia weren't participants in the war but that doesn't really feel like it matters all that much. Whenever I talk about the bombings of Cambodia and Laos with Americans (who - liberals and conservatives alike feel they must always defend) I sometimes here "well we bombed cities in Germany and Japan in WW2 and no one talks about those being war crimes". But were they? I really don't know much about those bombings. My gut says yes they were also war crimes but we just accept them because they were combatant countries?

  • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    McNamara is actually quoting Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay when he says that:

    When asked about U.S. actions in Japan during World War II, McNamara responded, “LeMay said if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he’s right. . . . LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose, and not immoral if you win?”

    • footfaults
      ·
      30 days ago

      deleted by creator

      • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Absolutely!

        I mean to iterate that what I think is most interesting about this quote is McNamara is criticizing a butcher like LeMay with his own words.