Gramz said
War crimes are war crimes, as simple as that
True…
….but, because history is written by the victors, not all war crimes are prosecuted the same (some are not prosecuted at all) and the difference can come down to who won the war.
If you’ve ever seen Errol Morris’ documentary “The Fog of War”, Robert McNamara talks about how much destruction and death the U.S. rained down on the citizens of Japan (we firebombed 67 populated cities in Japan during World War II). And he admits that if rhe U.S. had lost the war, some folks would likely have been prosecuted as war criminals. No one was ever charged. Winning the war didn’t change their actions—just how the world reacted to them.
Watch the whole clip (it’s over 3 minutes long), but if you don’t want to, skip to the 3:04 mark
Robert McNamara : LeMay said if we lost the war that we would have all been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He... and I'd say I... were behaving as war criminals.
LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side has lost.
But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”.
And he raises a great point. People will play fast and loose with their own morality. “If I agree with the side who did it, then it becomes moral”.