rocketpig said:
bazmeistergen said:
rocketpig said:
ocnkng said:
rocketpig said:
ocnkng said:
It was a war crime plain and simple. Dropping an A-bomb over a full fledged city where you know that everything within an x-mile radius is going to be obliterated is genocide.
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As opposed to carpet bombing multiple cities over prolonged periods of time, which was the only alternative and ultimately would have caused more deaths.
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* You mention carpet bombing as the only option but in the end its just one of endless options that could have been resorted to. For example consider this: The japanese military was beaten and overwhelmed in the asia-pacific theatre, it was confined exclusively in Japan. What about imposing a universal trade embargo? This would have caused immense hardship on the japanese people and would have created very strong pressure on the leadership to negotiate an end to the war.
* Even if I agree with your contention. A carpet bombing conducted over several months is not the same as a nuke. In any sort of conventional bombing you have the option however limited, of choosing your target. With a nuke its just uncontrolled annihilation.
* The act of detonating an atomic/nuclear device over a live population is a very serious and barbaric act. It truly shows that mankind could be capable of destroying themselves. This event cannot be excused or explained away with flimsy assumptions as is being done by the US corporate media for about 60 - 70 years.
* Finally criticism of this act should not be construed as anti US as the american people had no say in the matter. This was a decision by the US goverment and political elite.
Anyway nice talking with everyone, I am at work and will leave now. Kudos to the OP for raising this important topic.
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Again, "waiting out the Japanese people" allows Russia into the conflict. They would have just barged right in to China, whose government was standing on one broken leg, and possibly into Japan, forcing America's hand anyway.
There are so many variables in this equation that people are conveniently leaving out of this argument over whether the bombs should have been dropped. No one is arguing the horror of the bombs being dropped and it IS possible that the Japanese would have surrendered though that is far from a given and was very unclear, unlike what many posters in this thread would have you believe.
Ultimately, the decision was made that the war needed to end RIGHT THERE and some ugly steps were taken to accomplish that task to finish the conflict, keep the Russians out of southern Asia, and really, minimize the overall deaths inflicted. Were they war crimes? Absolutely not, as many other things done to civilians in that war were far more lengthy and brutal to European and Asian populations. It was an ugly time and an ugly war and hopefully the last of its kind mankind will ever see.
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You should consider working for the US government. You have the right mind-set regarding 'us and them' and see US actions as a force for good and a number of other countries as the opposite.
Saying that, I agree with your last sentence wholeheartedly, so at least there is something we can shake on :P
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Yes, the US government only does good things.
Like firebomb Dresden.
Don't assume you know a damned thing about me based on one fucking opinion on a message board.
PS. You should consider getting off your high horse.
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Come on, you should know (oops, said no in the first post) better than to rise to the bait. :P
And sorry, I shouldn't go about pronging people in the guts with daft provocative posts.
:P
And firebomb Tokyo - much trickier with all that wood. Have you seen Fog of War with Robert McNamara? He says he is a war criminal over the bombings of Tokyo. Found that a remarkable admission.
Yes.
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