Posted by pancho from ? (64.79.4.3) on Thursday, February 28, 2002 at 5:28AM :
It's helpful sometimes to see the United States from the outside and not as an inmate of the asylum. To the rest of the world the Atomic bombing of sleeping women and their children during the last days of the Second World War was typically American. Gringos will tell you it was done to "save lives" meaning theirs. But that isn't the whole story.
We know now that the Japanese officials in Washington were desperately trying to negotiate a capitualation, but were hoping it would not have to be total and unconditional surrender...because they feared for their Emperor, who was a God to them.
By our own treaty with the Soviet Union and their own obligations, they were supposed to enter the Asian front on September 15th. The American leeders were desperate to keep the Russians out...to make it unnecessary for them to enter the war,as we had asked them to, because we feared they would "gobble" up territory there as well.
Not allowing the Japanese to surrender in their own good time and with any negotiations that might drag on past September 15th, when the Ruskies would join Uncle Sam...was imperative. But...demanding an unconditional surrender, which we felt we needed just to drive them into the ground, was also important for our pride and our anger at the "sneak" attack on Pearl Harbor.
The atom bombs could have been dropped on an uninhabited island, or a military target, which neither city was, no matter what they said later. Problem was they had only three bombs, and only two of them were similar, the other had not been tested. One of the two had to be tested...that left its twin which they felt pretty sure would work...and another that might turn out to be a dud. That was the argument for dropping the one they knew would work, on a city, to impress the Japanese with its destructive force.
The argument was that if they "wasted" the one they knew would work on a dummy target, and the Japanese were not impressed...that would leave them with the unknown one, and if they decided then to shoot the works and drop that one on children asleep...and it too didn't kill a lot of them...the Americans would lose face.
Now how an attack by one military power on the military targets of another military power is a "sneaky" thing to do...because the American sailors were caught unaware...or "sleeping"... and is a "terrible thing"...while dropping such a horible bomb on children, who were ALSO sleeping... and is an okay thing to do...or mandated by the necessity of war blah blah blah...I'll leave you to figure out.
Anyway, they did drop the one sure one on Hiroshima and just for good measure, and before the Japanese might surrender too fast, a couple of days later they dropped the untested one on Nagasaki...and it WORKED!!! "Call and order MORE!!!"
The Japanese surendered, of course, and the Americans not only stopped the Ruskies from entering that war zone...but they served notice on the Soviet Union that we not only had this incredible new force of destruction... BUT, that we would use the damn thing, AND on innocent women and children...and that is why many people think the bombs were really used on civilians...to convince the Ruskies that Americans are the meanest bastards in the world till then...and still.
This going after women and children is something they first tried as a policy against the Native Americans who had their spirits broken by these brave new world warriors who would lure the men out of the village as if they intended a head on confrontation...meanwhile sending troops through the village to slaughter the women and children. The Native Americans knew then, I think, that it was all over for them...this was a new world they could not survive in.
Which brings us to Iraq and the continuation of this policy. The United States is not targeting the leeders and generals and President of Iraq...why would they? That would remove the "need" for Sanctions. They are once again going after the women and children and old folks and the dogs and cats and birds and anything that moves or breathes. This is in conformity with a long standing policy, that the best way to get your ends met, is to manufacture whatever excuse you need to kill the little bastards who are gonna grow up and be jealous of your way of life.
-- pancho
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