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almuqabala t1_jcm9sjt wrote

Well, it's 2023, and there's a barbaric war in Eastern Europe right now between two Slavic countries. Could Mr Schopenhauer be onto something, by any chance?

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fiftythreefiftyfive t1_jco481n wrote

Even for all its tragedies, the war in Ukraine doesn’t come remotely close to the horrors of the great wars of the 20th century, neither in its scale, nor in the method in which it is conducted.

Both Vietnam and the Korean War had millions of civilian deaths. Millions. Ukraine will have several tens of thousands by the time it’s done. Horrendous but… still very small in comparison.

And that’s not even talking about the methods. The Nazis were obviously monsters, but even looking at the Allies - the indiscriminate bombing civilian targets to oblivion was not only not as controversial as today but the standard practice. Killing hundreds upon hundreds of thousands.

Nowadays, when we talk about civilian bombing, it’s generally about infrastructure being destroyed and whether the collateral was acceptable or not. No one wants to be seen as targeting civilians and comparatively, the deaths among them remain low.

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almuqabala t1_jco4lz5 wrote

Targeting civilians was a crime even back in WWI. The weapons have become more sophisticated, thus less civilians suffer. But the casus belli is still as ridiculous in Ukraine as it was during both world wars. I would not call Russians super-smart and mature when they follow the original Nazis step by step. Doesn't look they've learnt anything.

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