February 13 is the 55th anniversary of the Valentine’s Day 1945 firebombing of Dresden Germany, one of the most ignominious and little-recognized moments of the Allied war effort. This was the single most destructive air raid in history, far surpassing the toll inflicted on Japan in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to come that August. At least 130,000 — some estimates place the figure as high as 300,000 — were killed when, in a three-day period, 3,400 tons of explosives & incendiaries were dropped, reducing six square miles of the city, famed for its artistic heritage and devoid of significance to the German war effort, to rubble. Many Allied officials were outraged–Germany was clearly on the verge of collapse, and the raids apppeared designed to inflict maximal civilian casualties on this city filled with refugees fleeing the advancing Soviet armies on the eastern front. It is far harder to argue in the German instance, as some do in countering antiwar revulsion about the use of the atomic bombs in Japan, that the attack was important to hastening the end of the war and may have saved lives. Kurt Vonnegut’s horror about Dresden apparently motivated the writing of Slaughterhouse-Five. On the other hand, the firebombing of Dresden has apparently become a rallying point for Holocaust deniers and other far right historical revisionists who focus on putative Allied war atrocities as “the real Holocaust of WWII”.

Today’s edition of The Daily Bleed, which I logged somewhere below, provides the above two links in its item about the Dresden anniversary. I have written to the listmaster asking him whether these links were included inadvertently or intentionally; if you’re interested, I’ll let you know how he responds.

Is Net Dyslexia a disease?

You’ve got to marvel at this elaborate and inventive joke.

Is Net Dyslexia a disease?

This idiotic poll claims to assess Americans’ attitudes on The Best/Worst Ways to Die. However, take a look at the way they constrain the question: “If you had to choose one of the following ways to die, which would you choose: drowning, fire, car accident, disease, gunshot,

plane crash, or other?” Most polltakers chose “other”.

N.Ireland Politicians Throw Down Gauntlets. Britain’s suspension of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland leaves a power vacuum likely to be fertile ground for hardline extremists who might end cease-fires that would

completely spell the end of the hopes of the 1998 Good Friday pact.

The New York Times today reports that a State Dept. review found it unlikely that Gen. Pinochet’s Chilean junta would have gone ahead with the 1973 murders of two Americans, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, without a nod from the CIA. The two were supporters of the overthrown socialist government of Salvador Allende. The Horman family’s search for information on the deaths was dramatized in the 1982 film “Missing” with Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon playing the parents of the missing American.

“At best, (the CIA) was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the government of Chile. At

worst, U.S. intelligence was aware the government of Chile saw Horman in a rather serious light and U.S. officials did nothing to

discourage the logical outcome of government of Chile paranoia,” the Times report said. Facing pressure from Congress, the State Dept. ordered the review in 1976; it concluded that it was “difficult to believe” that Pinochet would have proceeded with the executions without U.S. encouragement that they would not have serious repercussions to U.S.-Chile relations. President Clinton ordered the declassification of the material after the 1998 arrest of Pinochet in London.The CIA continues to protest its innocence.

You’ve got to marvel at this elaborate and inventive joke.

This idiotic poll claims to assess Americans’ attitudes on The Best/Worst Ways to Die. However, take a look at the way they constrain the question: “If you had to choose one of the following ways to die, which would you choose: drowning, fire, car accident, disease, gunshot,

plane crash, or other?” Most polltakers chose “other”.

N.Ireland Politicians Throw Down Gauntlets. Britain’s suspension of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland leaves a power vacuum likely to be fertile ground for hardline extremists who might end cease-fires that would

completely spell the end of the hopes of the 1998 Good Friday pact.

The New York Times today reports that a State Dept. review found it unlikely that Gen. Pinochet’s Chilean junta would have gone ahead with the 1973 murders of two Americans, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, without a nod from the CIA. The two were supporters of the overthrown socialist government of Salvador Allende. The Horman family’s search for information on the deaths was dramatized in the 1982 film “Missing” with Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon playing the parents of the missing American.

“At best, (the CIA) was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the government of Chile. At

worst, U.S. intelligence was aware the government of Chile saw Horman in a rather serious light and U.S. officials did nothing to

discourage the logical outcome of government of Chile paranoia,” the Times report said. Facing pressure from Congress, the State Dept. ordered the review in 1976; it concluded that it was “difficult to believe” that Pinochet would have proceeded with the executions without U.S. encouragement that they would not have serious repercussions to U.S.-Chile relations. President Clinton ordered the declassification of the material after the 1998 arrest of Pinochet in London.The CIA continues to protest its innocence.