"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: Area bombing is not a dirty word.
From: (BUFDRVR)
Date: 1/2/04 2:51 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Before talking about all we did wrong, just consider all
that we did right.

However, it is useful today to study what you did wrong to ensure we do
it
right the next time. Unlike infantry and artilliary tactics that are
thousands
of years old, aerial warfare is a mere infant at less than a hundred and
the
historical examples to study are much fewer. Don't take it personal Art,
we
are
in the process of sifting through what we did wrong over Iraq less than a
year
ago. Sometimes it seems us air minded people are pretty self deprecating.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it
harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"


I think it is a question of who's ox is gored. We should always study the
past
to correct errors. But it is a case of who is doing the studying. When
those
who never flew a mission or even served in the military start telling us
everything we did wrong, I resent the hubris. When skilled experienced
military
airman do the studying, I perk up and listen. I think it is a matter of
perspective. But from where I sat in WW II, it sure looked as though we
did a
lot more right than wrong. And we left a burning defeated Germany as
proof.

Unfortunately airman are a prone to spinning findings as anyone else.
Airman lied about the effectiveness of WW1 bombing to justify building up
airpower between the wars. They lied about the effectiveness of German
bombing at the start of WW2, to justify a counter offensive. Throughout WW2
they lied about the effectiveness of their bombing to justify throwing good
resources after bad.

I say it is better to ask someone who does not have an ox in the ring.