Reference no: EM133221824
Total war is "warfare that uses all possible means of attack, military, scientific, and psychological, against both enemy troops and civilians" (Webster's, 1966). It was the prevailing military doctrine applied by combatant nations during World War II. Allied and Axis military planners specifically targeted civilian populations. In the cases of German and Japanese strategists, the war was fought as much against indigenous populations as against opposing armies. The massacres and genocide directed against civilian populations at Auschwitz, Dachau, Warsaw, Lidice, and Nanking and countless other atrocities are a dark legacy of the 20th century.
1. Are deliberate attacks against civilians legitimate acts of war?
2. Were deliberate attacks on civilians during the Second World War acts of terrorism?
3. If these attacks were acts of terrorism, were some attacks justifiable acts of terrorism?
4. Is there such a thing as justifiable terrorism? Is terrorism malum in se or malum prohibitum?
5. Is the practice of total war by individuals or small and poorly armed groups different from its practice by nations and standing armies? How so or how not?