Editing Bombing of Dresden (section)

====As an immoral act, but not a war crime====
{{blockquote|... ever since the deliberate mass bombing of civilians in the second world war, and as a direct response to it, the international community has outlawed the practice. It first tried to do so in the [[Fourth Geneva Convention]] of 1949, but the UK and the US would not agree, since to do so would have been an admission of guilt for their systematic "area bombing" of German and Japanese civilians.|[[A.C. Grayling]].{{sfn|Grayling|2006b}} }}

[[Frederick Taylor (historian)|Frederick Taylor]] told ''[[Der Spiegel]]'', "I personally find the attack on Dresden horrific. It was overdone, it was excessive and is to be regretted enormously," but, "A [[war crime]] is a very specific thing which international lawyers argue about all the time and I would not be prepared to commit myself nor do I see why I should. I'm a historian."<ref name=Hawley/> Similarly, British philosopher [[A. C. Grayling]] has described RAF area bombardment as an "immoral act" and "moral crime" because "destroying everything... contravenes every moral and humanitarian principle debated in connection with [[Just war|the just conduct of war]]", though Grayling insisted that it "is not strictly correct to describe area bombing as a 'war crime'."{{sfn|Grayling|2006a|pp=245–246; 272–275}}