The difference is that air superiority over France in 1944 made daylight raids viable. Unescorted daylight raids over Germany were not. That the Beeb peddles the same old anti BC propaganda is par for the course. That the modern RAF does not feel compelled to denounce it is very sad. The only people to unreservedly defend the Bomber Offensive were the veterans themselves. That is not a comment on them. It is a comment on us, who are lucky that 55573 of them did what they did before dying in the doing of it.
The fact that Dresden was razed in 1945 puts end to that perspective. Even the staunch Churchill himself questionned the nature of the attack (admittedly having approved it previously).
You also can't take the 'well the Germans exterminated X million jews so it was warranted' argument, as things simply don't work like that. By that measure, would it have been fair for the allies to imprison and kill 6 million Nazis after the war because they'd done it first?
I can't criticize the actions of the men that did it. They were in the midst of their friends and family being killed, and that detracts from the perspective I have given the priveledge of being able to take having never been involved in it.