Extraordinary - Give a Listen To 'Just War?'

WPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge broadcast an extraordinary show today called Just Cause that explores various aspects of the current 'war' on terror and WW II. The first segment is an interview with James Yee , the Muslim Army Chaplin at Guantanamo who was wrongly arrested, subjected to sensory deprivation, and held in solitary confinement for 76 days. I saw him speak at the Wisconsin Book Festival last weekend. A real patriot.

The second segment told a story I'd never heard before, but is famous in post-WW II Germany, about the Nazi resistance called the White Rose and in particular the Scholls, brother and sister Hans and Sophie.

Hans Scholl (left), Sophie Scholl (center), and Christoph Probst (right), leaders of the White Rose resistance organization. Munich, Germany, 1942 USHMM Photo.

In a third segment, author A.C. Grayling discusses the firebombings of Dresden, Tokyo and numerous other cities by the Allies in WW II. A shocking story of the intentional bombing of German and Japanese citizens for the sole purpose of killing as many civilians as possible - different bombs were tested in the American desert to see which ones would burn the wooden Japanese housing better.