politics

Dresden had weapon fabrication sites, had military command infrastructure and was part of the war of aggression. Lets not try to speak about comparisons of cruelty when the scale is so large. Though in terms of Nazi Germany plenty of Germans did support "the war effort" till it turned back on them. Also in Dresden at most 25k died, however Nazis and other reactionaries try to create a wrong perception about it for various propagandist reasons, including saying "Dresden is just like 'the use of the atomic bomb'". Victims themselves do that more seldom than reactionaries.

Bei den Luftangriffen auf Dresden vom 13. bis 15. Februar 1945 wurden bis zu 25.000 Menschen getötet.

Of course I want to have "humane wars", as victims are persons, plenty of innocent within them, but in war against Nazis and Fascist powers like that the rational to discuss is rather why did the US use the bomb? In my opinion mostly to show off and to show it to the world. "Saving lives" was something that came after as argument. The US was about as interested in saving lives in the invasion of Japan as it was in Vietnam.

Dresden also saved some innocent lives by targeting the Gestapo and military rail:

Da die Bomben auch das Zentralgebäude der Gestapo zerstörten, konnte diese die vom 14. bis 16. Februar angesetzte Deportation der letzten 198 Juden aus dem Regierungsbezirk Dresden nicht planmäßig durchführen. Etwa 40 Juden starben im Dresdner „Judenhaus“ durch Bomben, während andere trotz Nutzungsverbots in Luftschutzräumen überlebten. Sie mussten jedoch in den Folgetagen aus der Stadt fliehen, da die Gestapo weiter nach ihnen suchte. Etwa 70 Dresdner Juden entkamen so dem Holocaust.[12][36] Darunter waren Henny Brenner,[37] der später berühmte Puppenspieler Josef Skupa[38] und der Literaturwissenschaftler Victor Klemperer, der damals in sein Tagebuch schrieb:

„Wen aber von den etwa 70 Sternträgern diese Nacht verschonte, dem bedeutete sie Errettung, denn im allgemeinen Chaos konnte er der Gestapo entkommen.“[39]

Translated:

Since the bombs did destroy the headquarter of the Gestapo they couldn't deport the last of the 198 Jews living in the central government district of Dresden to extermination camps. Around 40 Jews did die in the Dresdner "Judenhaus" due to the bombs, while others survived in air raid shelters, however those had to flee in the next days as the Gestapo did actively search for them (even in the chaos of those days [Note: German civilians did support the Gestapo with those things even at that point, as they did before the attacks]). Around 70 jews managed to escape the Shoa that way. One of them was Henny Brenner, the world famous puppet master Josef Skupa and literature scientist Victor Klemperer, who wrote in his diary of those days:

For those of the 70 star carriers, exempted from death, for them this night was salvation, in the all encompassing Chaos they could escape the Gestapo.

Then dozens of bombers didn't bomb Dresden that night, instead they bombed Prague, but the crew was misnavigating.

The allies weren't masterminds. With those errors giving them that is giving them much to much credit.