Was WWII the only major war under whih there was a clear good side and bad side?

[ScottM]

On another note, it was the only war of the past hundred years, where the U.S. was perfectly justified in it's involvement.

WWI?

That whole Lusitania incident was a bit of provocation.

[ScottM]

The Lusitania was being used to secretly ship arms. The Germans went as far as to take out ads in the New York Times warning potential passengers. Anyone who traveled on it was an idiot. There was no good side in WWI.

Such ads could easily be taken as propaganda during wartime, and besides, what was the U.S. government supposed to say about over 100 of its citizens being killed? It's there own fault for being stupid enough to ride on that ship? That certainly wouldn't have gone over well.

[ScottM]

No. There is no good side or bad side in war. Both sides are evil and both comitted war crimes. For example, the Allies:

1. Bombed civilians
2. Firebombed Dresden
3. Massacred Axis PoWs on numerous occasions
4. Massacred Polish PoWs (Katyn)

Just to mention a few.

None of which compare at all to launching an unprovoked war of global domination and systemically murdering 15 million people.

You could say the Allies played a role in that.

Oh yeah, Hitler obviously only carried out the Holocaust because of the Allies...

Unfortunately, war is an horrible business. But, sometimes, you simply have to do what you have to do. Hitler had to be stopped. Imagine if he had achieved his final goal of world domination. If that doesn't make you shudder, something's wrong.

[ScottM]

Stalin didn't fight on the Allies side because he believed in human rights by any stretch of the imagination. He was more concerned with saving his own hide. Both Stalin and Hitler were evil, but Stalin's positions didn't reflect those of the Allies as a whole.

[ScottM]

Post-war policy was not handled well. I agree that the Soviet Union should have been allowed to just walk over Eastern Europe, but the Cold War and Communist domination of Eastern Europe is neither here no there in discussing whether the Allies were right in stopping Hitler.

Again, let me repeat - Stalin was evil. The Soviet Union was evil. But, the fact of the matter remains that Hitler was evil and had to be dealt with immediately. But, it is true that Stalin should have been dealt with far differently than he was after the war.

[ScottM]

No. There is no good side or bad side in war. Both sides are evil and both comitted war crimes. For example, the Allies:

1. Bombed civilians
2. Firebombed Dresden
3. Massacred Axis PoWs on numerous occasions
4. Massacred Polish PoWs (Katyn)

Just to mention a few.

None of which compare at all to launching an unprovoked war of global domination and systemically murdering 15 million people.

You could say the Allies played a role in that.

Oh yeah, Hitler obviously only carried out the Holocaust because of the Allies...

Unfortunately, war is an horrible business. But, sometimes, you simply have to do what you have to do. Hitler had to be stopped. Imagine if he had achieved his final goal of world domination. If that doesn't make you shudder, something's wrong.

I was being sarcastic... Of course the Allies were right.

I knew you were being sarcastic. I was agreeing with you. Sorry, I should have made that clear. My bad.

[ScottM]

Stalin was worse than Hitler. Period.

Even if he was (by some silly attempt to objectively calculate such things), we didn't go to war with Hitler because he was "worse" than Stalin, we went to war with him because he was immediately threatening to turn the world into a smoldering ruin.

I agree. I think the fact that we were fighting along side the Soviets was a sort of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" since Hitler was the imminent threat. It doesn't imply any sort of endorsement of Stalin's policy. Hitler and Stalin were two of the most evil men of the 20th century, no doubt.