I will turn this into a somewhat recurring item. The idea here is to make clear to those who entrust government with power to beware what happens when the heady mix of government good intentions, unaccountability, and absolute power go off the rails.

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
- Friedrich Nietzsche



This thread is for the Allied bombing of Dresden. The firebombing of Dresden, a huge art and cultural center, was of minor importance. It had ammunition and communication installations. But it also had hundreds of thousands of civilians and refugees. It was bombed at the end of the war in 1945 after victory was well in hand. The resulting firestorm from the bombing and subsequent firebombing of Dresden was devastating. Estimated causalities were over 20,000 but may be as high as 100,000. The fire produced its own weather system, with gale force winds sucking into the fire core from the city outskirts. Reports of people actually being sucked into the fire were common. The fire was well over 1,500 C and melted steel and asphalt.