"That's why the Union Troops didn't like Forrest, he cheated." Yeah, but he cheated by running the same troops past Streight until he convinced him he was outnumbered, not by burning Rome. He also cultivated his "persona", so that his demands for surrender were taken very seriously. Finally, he could back up his "brag" with results. That ain't the same as Sherman; especially what he allowed, or at least did not stop, his troops from doing. As for as bombing German and Japanese cities, as Doyle said, they started it. The Gunny is right about modern warfare. Killing a couple hundred thousand Japanese in Horoshima and Nagasaki, as well as the firebombing of Tokyo, saved millions of American and Japanese lives. If you want the real take on that decision, ask someone who would have gone ashore in Japan, or who fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The closer we got, the harder they fought, and surrender was not an option in Japanese culture. That's why they treated American POWs so brutally. Yhey had no respect for them. Stan