If war broke out tomorrow....

[Weltall]

Fighting the war without dropping the bomb would have indeed been a better alternative...the body count could have possibly (but not likely) rang up as high as the number killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they wouldn't have been *innocents*. 500,000 deaths of soldiers who would die fighting for their country, or at least knowing that fighting could have very well brought about their demise, compared to 500,000 (or more? how many in total died from the a-bomb droppings?) innocent bystanders...

...That is likely the most ridiculous thing I've ever read here that wasn't posted by ABF. :hmm:

I would think the ideal would be to prevent as many deaths as possible, regardless of who they were. And, as I said before, since I am an American, I would vastly prefer the course that results in less Americans dying. After all, the Americans were fighting for my benefit, while the Japanese were fighting, at least, in spirit, to kill me and defeat my country. I don't get why differentiating between the two is so difficult. It works the same way of how you value the lives of your family over those of strangers... in this case, strangers who are out to get you. If I had to kill five people to save someone I loved, especially if they were out to kill that person, I'd do it twice if I could.