War, suffering, and the consequences

When you start a war like Palestine did against Israel, then people die. Palestinians say they have suffered 30,000 deaths, but that is not verified. But it is nothing compared to World War II.  

One book I read estimates that 70 million people died in  World War II — the majority of them civilians. They estimate that a total of 48 million to 63 million perished as a consequence of indiscriminate bombing of densely populated areas. For example, the U.S. firebombed Tokyo, killing an estimated 100,000 in one swoop. Another 600 bombers bombed Dresden, Germany, killing over 100,000, again in one swoop. 

Millions more were murdered under a system of genocide by Hitler, estimated at around six million, mostly Jews. 

As to the bombing, I had mentioned before, I was friends of a World War II B-17 bomber pilot who flew 35 missions over Germany. He said the lead plane in a group of six was the only one with the Norden bomb site; they dropped their bombs, then dropped smoke for the others to drop their bombs where the smoke was. The problem, he said, was that the wind blew the smoke so they didn't know where their bombs were hitting, thus the civilian deaths, I mentioned a group of six, but can you imagine there were 600 to 1,000 American and English bombers bombing Germany in one day, and if weather was good, they flew daily.  

In summary, when you start a war, you suffer the consequences. But unfortunately, these young college, pro-Palestine protesters don't know their history. As far as most of us war veterans are concerned, they don't know anything about war. Hopefully, those college kids protesting are the minority as they are the future of our country. Some of us say, "heaven help us" if these protesters turn out to be leaders.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.