Pali, as someone tending to field the pro Welby view, as well as someone whose family was on the receiving end of both Axis and Allied action or inaction, from even before what is generally considered the start of WWII, you have been cut a lot of slack here, and rightly so. In return though you are expected to answer counter argument rather than simply ignoring others responses and repeating the same mantra that bombing cities is immoral. Of course it is, war is immoral but if you engage in it, engage in it to win.
The general view of the UK is that we are a pushover, be it for hopeful immigrants, third world supplicants, or aspiring dictators. We may be, but there comes a point where enough is enough and then we fight to win. Who cares which way the bloody Belgrano was steaming? It posed a threat and was sunk, end of!
We went to war in 1939 because there was no alternative, not because we were obliged by Treaty obligations, but because we were yet again faced with a European power on the rampage that was a direct threat to us. Be it Spain, France, Holland, Germany, Russia, or whoever, we have always had to confront such a threat and we always will. That alone should tell us that we are not Europeans but a maritime power that has to watch its 6 o'clock at all times.
Mention has been made that once again we are seeing the same threat coming from Berlin, albeit the continuation of war by a different means. It has been poo-pooed but I am not so sure. The agenda that is attempting to create a super state out of a patchwork of completely different countries and philosophies is already showing signs of ever growing dissent. Dissent within states leads to the very worst kind of warfare, civil war.
God forbid that Europe should be thrown once again into yet another internecine bloodbath which could trample the very hopes which the original Common Market embraced. Time perhaps for the UK to take a long hard look at the direction Europe is going in and decide if it wants to go there too, or simply say "I'm out".
What has this harangue to do with Dresden? Everything in my book if we don't want to be doing the same all over again.