Alderaan was demilitarised, but more importantly, it was a member of the Empire, represented in the Imperial Senate by Princess Leia until that institution was dissolved shortly into Episode IV. The destruction of Alderaan would not be at all analagous to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or the dozens of major cities ravaged by strategic bombing during WWII; it would be like the US wiping Texas off the map with nuclear weapons because the Federal Government was unpopular there, except in this case Texas would have virtually no military of its own.<p>To be clear, while Bail Organa was deeply involved in the foundation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, it was a separate entity and Alderaan was not in a declared state of war with the Empire. Furthermore, Alderaan was an important Core World with a large population and significant economic output.<p>This article amounts to little more than historical revisionism and I suspect its author is pushing this agenda at the behest of the more conservative Moffs of the Imperial Remnant.