Feinder
Posts: 6589
Joined: 9/4/2002 From: Land o' Lakes, FL Status: offline
|
That brings an interesting point. Not to hijack my own thread, but when we say "total war", I'm talking Sherman (*spit*) style. Being from south of Mason Dixon, I've been raised to hate Sherman. Indeed, he was an utter b_stard. -BUT- he knew what he was doing. Many in the South were starving by 1864, and Sherman went forward with the "total war" mindset with a full head of steam (indeed, he brought definition to it that hadn't been seen since Rome vs. Carthage). He burned whatever cotton fields were left, and what livestock he didn't apprehend, he shot. People and soldiers that are truely starving, don't fight, or at least, they don't fight very well. But if faced with a military and civilain population that is starving but will "resist to the end", between chem weapons and all the other nasties, you could "attack" the agricultural production, and -THAT- would hurt (esp an already starving populace). Yes, it's mean and nasty, and we'd lose the moral high-ground. But if it were me in the oval office, and the invasion was bogged down, my troops were dying, and no A-bomb, and the US the public was tired. I'm not gonna lie, if "total war" is the fastest option to get the resister to give up, I'd be looking for responses at the next cabinet meeting. I'm not talking about a couple of bombers over London that only strengthens resolve. I'm talking arial mining of rice fields and doing whatever you do to kill the coastal fish. Get your protein from bugs. You can throw me in with Sherman and call me a b_stard for the next 150 years, but if it saves the lives of -my- soldiers, I could give a crap about those that continue to resist. Interesting point about the deprivation. I think Knavey just got himself a book on the (Japanese) civilian side of WW2. Says it was much worse than we figure it was. I'll have to borrow it once I finish "Forgotten Fleet" (RN in Pacific 44-45). -F-
_____________________________
"It is obvious that you have greatly over-estimated my regard for your opinion." - Me
|