Retired General Mark Milley on the killing of civilians in war

Before we all get self-righteous about what Israel is doing - and I feel horrible about the innocent people in Gaza who are dying - but we shouldn't forget they we, in the United States, killed a lot of innocent people in Mosul and Raqqa [Iraq].  That we, in the United States, killed 12,000 innocent French civilians and here we are on the 80th anniversary of Normandy, on the prep fires for Normandy.  We destroyed 69 Japanese cities, not including Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  We slaughtered people in massive numbers, innocent people who had nothing to do with their government: men, women and children.  War is a terrible thing, but if it's going to have meaning, if it's going to have any sense of morality, it's got to have a political purpose and it must be achieved rapidly, with the least cost and that you do by speed.

~ Ret. Gen. Mark Milley, conference appearance posted on Twitter/X, May 8, 2024