Original sentence: " He states that "Civilian deaths were not collateral damage but rather the object of the exercise." and he criticzes the "Allied policy of seeking to break German morale through bombing".Also there is the legal argument that if tactics in war become common place for all sides and if there is no breach of a writen convention/treaty, then common usage makes it legal under customary practive ("If international law is not enforced, persistent violations can conceivably be adopted as customary practice, permitting conduct that was once prohibited" (The Air Force Law Review Volume 56 2005 (PDF) Page 57/58)).Area bombing of German cities, e.For example, there was no mention of the Blitz in the Nuremberg judgement of Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering.No Axis official or officer was charged for war crimes for similar actions.Other historians note that there were little protection for civilians in the laws of war at the time, or dispute that civilians were deliberately targeted, stating that the primary aim was to reduce the industrial capacity of Germany.Rudolph J.Rummel notes that, in line with his own estimates, the historian Robert Newman calculates that 400,000 civilians and POWs were being killed by Japan each month.The RAF Bomber Command managed to divert many German resources which helped win the war.The allies have however been accused of hypocrisy since they condemned similar bombings during Spanish Civil War and by Japan in China before WWII.The alternative allied invasion of Japan, Operation Downfall, had it been necessary, would have caused far greater loss of human life for both sides.The controversial German historian Jörg Friedrich, who acknowledges that he is a revisionist, "claims that Winston Churchill's decision to bomb a shattered Germany between January and May 1945 was a war crime.the bombing of Dresden and of Königsberg (East Prussia)
Edited sentence: In his book "Fire Sites" published in 2003, a controversial German historian Jörg Friedrich ,who acknowledges that he is a revisionist, "claims that Winston Churchill's decision to bomb a shattered Germany between January and May 1945 was a war crime