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2010-08-06 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by tu3031 2010-08-06 13:35|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 "President Obama is very committed to working toward a world without nuclear weapons,"

I See the gonorrhea (Liberal, not physical) has spread to the brain.

HE WANTS TO DISARM AMERICA?

Isn't that an impeachable offense? the commander in Chief wants to surrender without even attempting a defense?

Posted by Redneck Jim 2010-08-06 17:46|| 2010-08-06 17:46|| Front Page Top

#2 Obummer never saw Seven Days in May.

Posted by Gabby 2010-08-06 17:58|| 2010-08-06 17:58|| Front Page Top

#3 Let's not go there, 'k?

Posted by Steve White 2010-08-06 18:54|| 2010-08-06 18:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Think of the endorsement opportunities Barry will have after his Dear Leader gig. Hallmark Cards. Vaseline. Kneepads...

Posted by tu3031 2010-08-06 19:02|| 2010-08-06 19:02|| Front Page Top

#5 Let's not go there, 'k?

Twas not an endorsement, Doc. My favorite characters supported the contitution, even though they thought the President and Congress were wrong to support the unilateral disarmament. I seem to remember Kirk Douglas, George Kennedy and the guy that played the conservative senator. Burt Lancaster's general and the others were not admirable characters.

The point is/was that people sometimes act irrationaly out of perfectly rational fears.

Posted by Gabby 2010-08-06 19:14|| 2010-08-06 19:14|| Front Page Top

#6 Sari for the spelling --
PIMF.

Posted by Gabby 2010-08-06 19:17|| 2010-08-06 19:17|| Front Page Top

#7 As I've said before, I used to be ambivalent about the bombings until I read "Downfall" by Richard Frank. He covered the events leading up to the bombing, including the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities, which also caused horrendous civilian casualties.

If we had not bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and if the Japanese had not surrendered, we would have started bombing the railroads and bridges that went from the farms to the cities. The result would have been mass starvation. This is besides the civilian casualties that would have resulted in an invasion. The civilians were being trained to resist the Americans in any way they could - even if it meant their deaths.

Not to mention, if the Japanese had not surrendered when they did, the Russians were getting ready to invade the northern islands, which they would have claimed as war booty.

What the bombings did is to give the Japanese Emperor a face saving way of surrendering. Even though it was obvious that Japan was losing the war, there were still elements in the military that wanted to keep fighting to the very end.

After the war, Gen. MacArthur ran Japan for several years. He saw to it that the Japanese were fed. When Americans said we should just let them starve, his reply was "We're better than that". And we are.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2010-08-06 20:34|| 2010-08-06 20:34|| Front Page Top

#8 After the war, Gen. MacArthur ran Japan for several years. He saw to it that the Japanese were fed. When Americans said we should just let them starve, his reply was "We're better than that"
There were other possible outcomes. There was a faction of Imperial militarists who attempted to depose Hirohito secretly & then speak in his behalf. They would never have surrendered under any circumstances. Hirohito himself was so little known to his subjects that when he did address them over the radio after the nuke attacks, his subjects had trouble recognizing the emperor's dialect.
There were plans for Imperial forces to murder all the POW's and civilian internees should the Home Islands be invaded.
Consider if this had all happened, there had been no surrender after the first 2 nuke strikes, and then all the prisoners had been executed.
I suspect the Allies would have been quite content to let the Japanese starve at that point. Either that, or build up a larger nuclear arsenal & repeat the nuclear attacks until there was no possible further resistance. We were basically good people, but there are limits to what any nation will tolerate in extremis.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-08-06 20:48|| 2010-08-06 20:48|| Front Page Top

#9 Anguper, we only had three nukes at the time. The first one was tested at Trinity Site, the second dropped on Hiroshima (Kyoto had been first choice as of May '45, but that changed) and the third on Nagasaki (secondary target to Kokura, the primary target, which was too clouded over that day to make a valid assessment of the damages).

It would have taken up to six months to produce another bomb.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2010-08-06 21:39|| 2010-08-06 21:39|| Front Page Top

#10 I've said it before so forgive me if you've read this bit but...

In his autobiography Akira Kurosawa talked about how everyone expected the Emperor to order everyone to suicide rather than face the shame of occupation. Kurosawa was one of the most western folks in Japan at the time and his response to this thought was to get married so he'd be married before he suicided.

Let that sink in a bit. The entire nation was expecting to kill themselves and a large chunk of them probably would have.

Add that to the number of Americans that were expected to be casualties of an invasion of the main Japanese islands and the number of folks saved by those two bombs is incredibly, astronomically high. Anyone that says the bombs were bad is ignorant.

Posted by rjschwarz 2010-08-06 21:50|| 2010-08-06 21:50|| Front Page Top

#11 Anyone that says the bombs were bad is ignorant.

Intelligence is finite. There are just a hell'va lot more people around today than back then.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-08-06 22:24|| 2010-08-06 22:24|| Front Page Top

#12 Let me know when the Japanese send a representative to Manila.

Posted by Pappy 2010-08-06 22:34|| 2010-08-06 22:34|| Front Page Top

#13 Not to mention the Comfort Women.

Posted by CrazyFool 2010-08-06 23:13|| 2010-08-06 23:13|| Front Page Top

#14 "Why is this man laughing?" Because he (Albert Einstein) believed in the America that existed when this picture of him was taken---We've devolved considerably since then. Today, we would NEVER mention the BATAAN Death March or the Japanese atrocities upon an unsuspecting, undeserving Chinese population. FUC* these LIB crybabies who have no sense of our history! Stupid Ass-H*les

Posted by Asymmetrical Triangulation 2010-08-06 23:19|| 2010-08-06 23:19|| Front Page Top

#15 It would have taken up to six months to produce another bomb.
I'm aware of that. My proposed scenario after Japan's refusal to surrender after being nuked twice, would have had the US face a population bent on death before surrendering while producing the maximum number of casualties on US invasion forces. The US then would have had to choose an invasion or then taking the time to produce & then use further nukes.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-08-06 23:32|| 2010-08-06 23:32|| Front Page Top

00:06 JosephMendiola
23:32 Anguper Hupomosing9418
23:26 Procopius2k
23:25 JosephMendiola
23:19 Asymmetrical Triangulation
23:14 JosephMendiola
23:13 CrazyFool
23:05 JosephMendiola
23:04 Gaz
23:03 CrazyFool
23:02 JosephMendiola
22:59 Asymmetrical Triangulation
22:39 KBK
22:34 Pappy
22:33 Old Patriot
22:24 Procopius2k
22:24 NCMike
22:17 Pappy
22:13 JosephMendiola
22:05 JosephMendiola
21:59 Barbara Skolaut
21:54 Frank G on the road
21:50 rjschwarz
21:49 Mike Hunt