To This Date...
The U.S. has yet to issue an official apology for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That doesn't mean the U.S., as a nation, should issue an apology. But one could say that it is disingenuous for the linguini-spined among us, to cry about Israels disproportionate use of force against Hezbollah, when the U.S. sanctioned the ultimate use of disproportionate force against Japan sixty-one years ago.
While the U.S., seemingly, cannot issue an official apology, there is nothing to keep a sitting U.S. president from offering and unofficial personal apology. There is nothing from keeping all of us from doing the same.
Before anyone decides to accuse me of wanting blood and death on the one hand-- in the here and now --while decrying blood and death on the other, sixty-one years ago, let me point you to the preamble at the beginning of another of today's posts, In Memorium -- Part I
Atomic weapons. Seriously, what good has come of them? Deterence? Okay... but don't you think the world is less safe with this genie now irrevokably out of the bottle? What of Iran and her quest for the A-bomb?
The U.S. has the utterly unique and infamous distinction of being the only nation to ever have used atomic weapons on another nation. Japan has been the only nation in history to have ever tasted of the suffering borne upon-- to quote myself --atomic winds. It wasn't enough for the U.S. to drop one bomb. One would undoubtedly have ended the war with Japan... the simple threat of a second would have, IMHO, done the trick. But the U.S. wasn't content with dropping just one. It's as though the powers that be looked at the film footage, and said, "Good God! Would you look at that!!! ...Let's do it again!"
Yes, the war needed to end. Yes, Japan started it all by attacking Pearl Harbor; a day interestingly referred to as 'a date which will live in infamy.' Nevermind the fact that Pearl Harbor suffered 2,300 to 2,900 casualties, depending on which source you use, while the Hiroshima bomb alone, in the initial blast, killed aproximately 80,000 men, women, and children.
Every death is regrettable. Every shot fired, a failure for humanity. We cheapen ourselves by the use of weapons against our neighbors, and we are lessened by the loss of each life we take.
No I don't like war at all. But neither do I like the idea of men, burdened by an oppressive and insane ideology, killing 241 marines... and getting away with it. Neither do I like the idea that this same ideology mutilates or murderers women for sexual impurity, whether they're guilty or not (guilt being a non-issue as far as I'm concerned). I hate the idea that these freaks are so twisted that the idea of co-existence with other cultures is anathema to them... that they would rather fly jet liners filled with passengers into skyscrapers filled with workers... not soldiers... and if a certain faction within this country had its way, the freaks would get away with that too.
This war did not end with Afghanistan-- Islam knows no physical border... has no tangible homeland. this war will not end with Iraq. This war, in fact, has only just begun, and few seem to realize it. While we fight like a pack of dogs over a few bones of contention, what's to stop these freaks from sneaking past and hitting us again? We're not paying attention. We haven't learned anything from the past. Not from Chamberlin, not from Hitler, not from Pearl Harbor, not from Hiroshima OR Nagasaki, not from Korea, not Vietnam, not Beirut, not Mogadishu. Israel, it would seem, has learned lessons we have not... Specifically, that War is indeed hell.
So... If I choose to stand with Hiroshima and decry the use and proliferation of atomic weapons, it's because I've gotten a big eye-ful of what's going on in the world... and I'm surprised as hell that you haven't.
While the U.S., seemingly, cannot issue an official apology, there is nothing to keep a sitting U.S. president from offering and unofficial personal apology. There is nothing from keeping all of us from doing the same.
Before anyone decides to accuse me of wanting blood and death on the one hand-- in the here and now --while decrying blood and death on the other, sixty-one years ago, let me point you to the preamble at the beginning of another of today's posts, In Memorium -- Part I
As much as I recognize the necessity of war, I find it nonetheless to be among the worst of human proclivities...
Atomic weapons. Seriously, what good has come of them? Deterence? Okay... but don't you think the world is less safe with this genie now irrevokably out of the bottle? What of Iran and her quest for the A-bomb?
The U.S. has the utterly unique and infamous distinction of being the only nation to ever have used atomic weapons on another nation. Japan has been the only nation in history to have ever tasted of the suffering borne upon-- to quote myself --atomic winds. It wasn't enough for the U.S. to drop one bomb. One would undoubtedly have ended the war with Japan... the simple threat of a second would have, IMHO, done the trick. But the U.S. wasn't content with dropping just one. It's as though the powers that be looked at the film footage, and said, "Good God! Would you look at that!!! ...Let's do it again!"
Yes, the war needed to end. Yes, Japan started it all by attacking Pearl Harbor; a day interestingly referred to as 'a date which will live in infamy.' Nevermind the fact that Pearl Harbor suffered 2,300 to 2,900 casualties, depending on which source you use, while the Hiroshima bomb alone, in the initial blast, killed aproximately 80,000 men, women, and children.
Every death is regrettable. Every shot fired, a failure for humanity. We cheapen ourselves by the use of weapons against our neighbors, and we are lessened by the loss of each life we take.
No I don't like war at all. But neither do I like the idea of men, burdened by an oppressive and insane ideology, killing 241 marines... and getting away with it. Neither do I like the idea that this same ideology mutilates or murderers women for sexual impurity, whether they're guilty or not (guilt being a non-issue as far as I'm concerned). I hate the idea that these freaks are so twisted that the idea of co-existence with other cultures is anathema to them... that they would rather fly jet liners filled with passengers into skyscrapers filled with workers... not soldiers... and if a certain faction within this country had its way, the freaks would get away with that too.
This war did not end with Afghanistan-- Islam knows no physical border... has no tangible homeland. this war will not end with Iraq. This war, in fact, has only just begun, and few seem to realize it. While we fight like a pack of dogs over a few bones of contention, what's to stop these freaks from sneaking past and hitting us again? We're not paying attention. We haven't learned anything from the past. Not from Chamberlin, not from Hitler, not from Pearl Harbor, not from Hiroshima OR Nagasaki, not from Korea, not Vietnam, not Beirut, not Mogadishu. Israel, it would seem, has learned lessons we have not... Specifically, that War is indeed hell.
So... If I choose to stand with Hiroshima and decry the use and proliferation of atomic weapons, it's because I've gotten a big eye-ful of what's going on in the world... and I'm surprised as hell that you haven't.
from the mind of... Eric | 9:46 PM
5 Comments:
I hear you. I don't think it's wise, though, to lump all our enemies under the tiny label of "them." They all have different aims. We are their "them" for different reasons.
These moral and ethical dwarves, drunk on their own oddeologies, think they're 10 feet tall and bulletproof and are determined to fight the biggest man in the bar -- and that's Uncle Sam.
Point taken. But how do you differentiate between "them"? How does one war against an enemy who blends so wickedly into the general population? Who wears no uniform?
Also...
How wickedly clever of you!
"Oddeologies"
Oh, I wasn't talking about enemies masqerading as civilians. I meant:
Al Qaida is one of our enemies.
Hezbollah is an enemy.
The extremist leadership in Iran is out enemy.
Syria, North Korea, same thing.
Certain elements in Saudi Arabia.
Certain elements on our own soil -- white-supremacist, Aryan-nation types.
Anti-American leftists in some parts of South America (maybe; I think they're anti-Bush and anti-rightist, not really anti-American).
That's a lot of enemies. To interact with all as if they were all the same, and had the same goals, is dangerous.
Re: "oddeologies." It just came to me as I typed. Gracias. :-)
What good has ever come from the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Has it been lost on everyone besides me that for Sixty-One Years since those bombings, Japan has been perhaps our most loyal Ally and trading partner?
They have never opposed the U.S. on anything since, and have stood with us and pledged their support and participation in our every endeavor, with enthusiasm.
Just a thought...
No, Tug, that thought has not escaped me. I meant that the world is decidedly less safe because of nuclear weapons... I should have made that point clearer.
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