parsifal
Colonel
There were conventions at the time concerning attacks on civilians, the treatment of POWs and the conduct of war. There was no real body of law however. Situations like nuremberg had simply never arisen before. depending of the age that a war was fought, an opponent and his lieutenants could be tortured, banished, thrown in gaol without trial, ransomed or just executed. Stalin at one of the big three conferences had suggested, seriously, to the summary execution of 100000 important Germans. Churchill had seriously considered, there was serious debate in the US to the complete dismantling of the german state as an industrial power.
none of these options won through. though can justifiably denigrate the UN for its weakness now, back then it had some really brilliant supporters, and it was their force of will that ensured that the criminals that had conducted the war were given some measure of justice. saying that it was in the capacity of countries like switzerland, or argentina to run the trials more impartially is just sheer ignorance....the laws themselves to try these people didnt even exist, and most of the nations were blatantly pto german anyway. switzerland certainly was.
Most thinking people agree that something had to be done about the nazis in particular, but to a lesser extent the japanese. it didnt turn into a blood bath. The people that were executed in the post war trials all deserved to die. the nations that had gone to war were right to be blamed under the UN charter for waging aggressive wars. Trying to argue that dropping the bomb, or any other of the more nasty allied war policies was an equivalent war crime is rubbish. no-one ever said the allies were perfect, or thay we were not capable of malevalent violence. We were perhaps better at it than anybody. That is not a crime, thats being scary and good at making war. The nazis were not in the same league. They killed for killings sake, and that is a world apart from dropping a bomb, however powerful, on a legitimate military target.
it just makes me so mad to see people saying stuff about the war crimes trials that they really are not in a position to say. Spend 5 years studying law, and do a unit or two on the development of international law, and then you may be in a position to comment. otherwise you are just blowing it out of certain parts of your anatomy
none of these options won through. though can justifiably denigrate the UN for its weakness now, back then it had some really brilliant supporters, and it was their force of will that ensured that the criminals that had conducted the war were given some measure of justice. saying that it was in the capacity of countries like switzerland, or argentina to run the trials more impartially is just sheer ignorance....the laws themselves to try these people didnt even exist, and most of the nations were blatantly pto german anyway. switzerland certainly was.
Most thinking people agree that something had to be done about the nazis in particular, but to a lesser extent the japanese. it didnt turn into a blood bath. The people that were executed in the post war trials all deserved to die. the nations that had gone to war were right to be blamed under the UN charter for waging aggressive wars. Trying to argue that dropping the bomb, or any other of the more nasty allied war policies was an equivalent war crime is rubbish. no-one ever said the allies were perfect, or thay we were not capable of malevalent violence. We were perhaps better at it than anybody. That is not a crime, thats being scary and good at making war. The nazis were not in the same league. They killed for killings sake, and that is a world apart from dropping a bomb, however powerful, on a legitimate military target.
it just makes me so mad to see people saying stuff about the war crimes trials that they really are not in a position to say. Spend 5 years studying law, and do a unit or two on the development of international law, and then you may be in a position to comment. otherwise you are just blowing it out of certain parts of your anatomy