While I think that many of Dershowitz's comments in his post, Amnesty International's Biased Definition of War Crimes: Whatever Israel Does to Defend Its Citizens are correct, I disagree whole heartedly with the following comment he made:
" Had the Allies been required to fight World War II under the rules of engagement selectively applied to Amnesty International to Israel, our "greatest generation" might have lost that war."
Dershowitz rightfully suggests that Churchill ordered bombings of Germany that would kill as many civilians as possible. The best example of this is the fire bombing of Dresden which killed 100,000 civilians but had no strategic value to the Soviet's taking Berlin. In fact, the Red Army only used its air force to support its tank and infantry divisions. In that sense, the Russians were far more humane about civilian bombing and recognized how limited tactical significance there is to civilian bombing. In fact, the Nuremburg Trials excluded civilian bombing as a war crime because the Brits and Americans killed far more civilians in their air raids than did the Nazis.
The dropping of 2 atomic bombs on Japan was a shameful part of U.S. history in large part because the victors write history. Over one million civilians were already killed by Lemay's Air Force before we dropped the bombs. In fact, the Soviets who were technically neutral with Japan in May, 1945 received communications from Japan that they were willing to surrender if the U.S. would allow them to keep their Emperor. This occurred shortly after VE Day. The U.S. refused.
One of the other agreements reached at Yalta the previous February was that the Soviets would attack Japan's large army in Manchuria 90 days after the end of hostilities in Europe. The A-Bomb was not yet tested then and Roosevelt correctly requested the Soviets to attack Japan's multi-million man army at the Soviet/Manchurian border. VE Day was on May 8, 1945. Russia declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945 and invaded Manchuria the next day. The Hiroshima bomb was dropped 2 days earlier. Hiroshima had no strategic military value nor did the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki.
Shortly after the Russians entered the war and the A-Bombs were dropped, the U.S. accepted the Japanese surrender on the condition that the U.S. allowed Japan to keep its Emperor. This was exactly what they offered the Russians as mediators in May, 1945. Historians including Stephen Ambrose and former Secretary of War Stimson (now Defense) have acknowledged that the dropping of the A-Bomb was more of a message to the Soviets than it was to Japan. What else explains our accepting Japan's condition of keeping the Emperor after the Bomb was dropped when they offered it to the Russians the previous May?
But, the excuse was always that this was payback for Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. That is just pop culture. Had Roosevelt lived, VJ day would have occurred in May, 1945. Stimson even advised Truman to share atomic secrets with our gallant allies and keep them in an Al Gore type "lock box" so that the Bomb could never be used again. But, Truman could not stop the Cold Warriors who were committed to confronting the Soviets with our secret weapon ostentatiously in our metaphorical holster. And Stimson was not the only one advocating such an alliance with the Soviets as to the Bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer fought for such a "lock box" and refused to be a part of the deveopment of the H-Bomb. Just think of where the world would be today if that sound advice was taken. Surely the Russians would have agreed since they did not successfully test the A-Bomb until 1949.
Any American who blames nuclear proliferation on Iran or any other country must read history and not pop culture propaganda. And Truman was a Democrat. But he was not a visionary and was also a "machine politician" who was unable to have the influence that Roosevelt had to make policy. This is a lesson we can still learn now, but there is little time left.