5th March 2004, 9:39 PM
Now I'll just add this. Maybe the best thing to do WOULD have been to drop the first nuke in an unoccupied area, though close enough that everyone would notice it immediatly. However, had that not worked, the second bomb assuredly should have been dropped where people were. In other words, try it a way that only let them know of our POWER OF ULTIMATE FISSIONOSITY THAT ALL ENERGY BLASTS IN ANIME AND VIDEO GAMES MADE THERE WILL HENCEFORTH EMULATE (and in an obvious way too), and if that wasn't enough, THEN let them know we aren't afraid to use it to kill as well. That might have been the best strat when it comes right down to it, using one to give a great fear, and if it turned out the culture wouldn't give in JUST to a show of power, then also show you will use it whenever possible. However, it's very likely that that would have had to be done anyway, so it's nothing to really get guilty over. War is NOT pretty or honorable. It's a very ugly and grim reality of death. It's all just plain killing, so in the end it really IS all about doing what it takes to win because it's all killing in the end. It's easy to make certain people look like a hero, and yes they are, but the truth is that they are killing people so there's really nothing that can be said except it's about survival. Grim yes, but that's the reality. So, before claiming we were very honorable UNTIL the bombing, remember that it's all horrid killing, and it all just had to be done to safeguard America. Don't make it out to sound like the other lives taken were any more virtuous. It's not the killing, or who is killed, or how they are killed, where the virtue lies. It's in the risking of one's own life.
So, I guess that if we ever attacked a country with nothing but robotic dolls, that would be cowardice...
So, I guess that if we ever attacked a country with nothing but robotic dolls, that would be cowardice...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)