This is part of a pile of rubble that is pretty much what was left of Stuttgart after 53 separate bombing missions came through in World War II.There was so much of this rubble that the mountain is now approximately 40 meters (~120 feet) taller than it was in 1945.
To me that is unreal. Here are a few more pictures, then I will get to making my point.
This sign roughly translates into what I said about adding onto the mountain and where the rubble came from.
Here is the sign that gave me pause and made me think a little. It translates as: "This mountain was built after the Second World War from the rubble of the town to stand as a memorial of the dead and a warning to the living."
I just wonder. What would the people of 1940's Germany really think about what we call a "war" these days?
Because I think we have heeded their warning well.
Today's military strikes and raids are precision events. Death is bought in retail quantities, not wholesale. There is no more bombing an entire city to get the factories there. Civilian causulties are avoided at all costs, sometimes even to the detriment of the mission. The term "collateral damage" gives commanders at all levels cold sweats and shaky hands. We hear on the news that 2 or 3 civilians wandered into a firefight and got killed and we think "That's horrible" and it is. But it is not destroying 55% of a city to get at targets that make up less than 5% of the city.
We treat the civilians and non-military targets in our "War on Terror" with the respect they deserve.
And you know what? I think it makes a mountain of a difference.
