What ordinary men can do: The bombing of Hiroshima

[Evil Tyrant]

You've got a really disgusting opinion, really.

It may very well be, but as I have said before, you fight wars to win, not to see how nice you can be. If the quickest way win is to destroy a few cities and their inhabitants, I'd do it.

 

[von_Seydlitz]

...only 79 square miles of urban settlement destroyed in Germany.

I don't question your whole argumentation, but I don't feel the word "only" is fitting on the death of 400.000-600.000 children, women and old men.

 

[von_Seydlitz]

It may very well be, but as I have said before, you fight wars to win, not to see how nice you can be. If the quickest way win is to destroy a few cities and their inhabitants, I'd do it.

Yeah well, excuse if I didn't agree with your opinion, but always when I've dealt with these thematics, I afterwards hope that people learned out of this. So excuse that I'm sometimes a bit of a idealist.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

So excuse that I'm sometimes a bit of a idealist.

Don't worry, I won't hold it against you.

 

[von_Seydlitz]

"Mir fällt ein Stein vom Herzen", i would say. But I don't now if there's an equal saying in english.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

"Mir fällt ein Stein vom Herzen", i would say. But I don't now if there's an equal saying in english.

Unfortunately I cannot speak German so I don't know, but your English is good.

 

[Marla_Singer]

It may very well be, but as I have said before, you fight wars to win, not to see how nice you can be. If the quickest way win is to destroy a few cities and their inhabitants, I'd do it.

So in a way, you agree with the fundamentalist terrorists who believe that the Islamic world has to kill all American civilians in order to dominate again this world.

Do you realize that in talking this way you give a legitimacy to nuclear and biological terrorism ?

 

[von_Seydlitz]

Unfortunately I cannot speak German so I don't know, but your English is good.

Meant for serious or sarcastic?

 

[Evil Tyrant]

So in a way, you agree with the fundamentalist terrorists who believe that the Islamic world has to kill all American civilians in order to dominate again this world.

Do you realize that in talking this way you give a legitimacy to nuclear and biological terrorism ?

The terrorists believe that they have to kill all Americans to win, civilian or not. That's why we should destroy them before they have an opportunity.


Only nuclear terrorism, I don't trust biological weapons.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

Meant for serious or sarcastic?

Meant for serious.

 

[von_Seydlitz]

Thanks then. Just wondered because I'm more following intuition rather than grammar and stuff. And because my english teacher told me the opposite. She didn't like me, I disagreed with her to often.

 

[von_Seydlitz]

So in a way, you agree with the fundamentalist terrorists who believe that the Islamic world has to kill all American civilians in order to dominate again this world.

Do you realize that in talking this way you give a legitimacy to nuclear and biological terrorism ?

I guess his point of view implicates that killing any enemy civilians is righteous if this would be part of your national interest. This would also fit for "religious" interest then, I guess.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Dang. One you change your avatars. This is confusing!

 

[von_Seydlitz]

I wanted to take an custom avatar.. couldn't find out how to do so. Is this only possible when you got a number of posts?

 

[Bugfatty300]

I wanted to take an custom avatar.. couldn't find out how to do so. Is this only possible when you got a number of posts?

Yeah, 100 I think.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

Thanks then. Just wondered because I'm more following intuition rather than grammar and stuff. And because my english teacher told me the opposite. She didn't like me, I disagreed with her to often.

Your English is actually better that that of most Americans, so don't be discouraged. English teachers are notorious for their hatred of the human race.

 

[von_Seydlitz]

Your English is actually better that that of most Americans, so don't be discouraged. English teachers are notorious for their hatred of the human race.

Thanks again. In this case, it was a really special teacher. I have always been of the opinion, that it is no accident that her initials are SS. Though a lot of female language teachers at our school actually seemed to have either hatred against pupils, men or german culture. But she united all these things.

 

[Mega Tsunami]

William Meadows, the WW2 vet in the article, repeats the illogical nonsense so many people accept without ever really stopping to think about it: 'genocide saves lives'. In other words 'If so many people hadnt been killed, many people would have been killed' It would be funny if it wasnt such a tragic subject. It makes somewhat more sense when people say that commiting genocide against Japanese civilians is acceptable because it prevented the deaths of US servicemen who would have had to invade. That begs the question: how many Japanese women and children are worth one US soldier? Ten, twenty, a thousand? Is there any limit at all?

The American military had planned the invasion of the mainland to commence on 1 November 1945 (Operation Downfall). Various estimates were done but IIRC the figure of up to 1 million American casualties was conservatively estimated. The number of dead Japanese could have been between 5 and 10 million!! (Based on what had happened on Okinawa etc).

So someone had to decide: Use nukes and kill up to 200,000 (most of whom would sadly have died anyway from conventional bombs) or start the invasion which could lead to as many as 11 million deaths.

 

[Stapel]

What really troubles me is that all these years later, they still feel no remorse. How is that possible? How can ordinary men commit such horrific acts, and feel nothing? If the world is filled with ordinary men like these, is their any hope for humanity?

Van Kirk told the BBC (I actually listened to it) he was neither proud, nor ashamed.

How can oridinary men commit the horrific act of killing 140.000 people?
They can because it might have saved 1.400.000 people.

I don't really feel like lecturing the ethical aspects of trading human lifes.
However, if killing one innocent man saves the lifes of 10 other innocent men, one could argue it is immoral not the kill the one innocent man.

 

[classical_hero]

I have not read the whole thread so please forgive me if I am repeating some old info.

Imagine the cost of life that would have occured had America Invaded Japan. I believe that while the horror of the Nuclear Weapons was awful, it is so much better than having millions upon millions die, so that Japan will not attack any more. The loss of life on those two days is certainly much better than any invasion that would have occured.

Maybe this should have been the solution for Iraq.