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Originally Posted by slapass
Something to consider. We were never able to kill civilians on such a grand scale before. Planes and bombing were new. We always look back and think they were making reasoned decisions. Think about how no one had ever done it before, and they were trying out new weapons in real time. In hindsight they were war criminals but since it was us no one wants to say that. Almost no one had targeted civilians to such an extent.
Through out history the civilian casualty rate was about 1 to 1 with soldiers. It started to sky rocket in the 20th century and is now more like 4 to 1.
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As you pointed out, the very nature of warfare itself has dramatically changed. Governments and their armed forces can do a lot more damage and civilians get in the way. During WWII we carpet bombed entire cities, destroying them completely and killing the entire civilian population.
This is why we now have the Geneva Conventions.