Subject:
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Re: Vote against/for...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 12 Nov 2002 14:20:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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990 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Fredrik Glöckner writes:
> "Pedro Silva" <el_gordo@netc.pt> writes:
>
> > Actually, the bomb was dropped to scare the Japanese, thus ending
> > the war. I don't see that as terrorism, though - terrorism implies
> > a much more prolonged chain of events than a couple weeks in August
> > '45.
>
>
> The two atomic bomb raids were not the only US bomb raids on Japan
> during the second world war. US low level incendiary bomb raids
> started much earlier. The aim of the night time bomb raids were the
> civillian population, which largely lived in houses composed out of
> wood and paper. Some estimates indicate that these fire bomb raids
> killed as many civillians as the two atomic bombs combined, but over a
> much longer time span. The bomb raids were designed to lower enemy
> morale and productivity.
>
> Some quotes:
>
> "Estimates of economic damage ecpected indicate that incendiary
> attack on Japanese cities may be at least five times as effective,
> ton for ton, as precision bombing [...] However, the dry economic
> statistics, impressive as they may be, still do not take account
> of the further and unpredictable effect on the Japanese war effort
> of a national catastrophe of such magnitude- entirely
> unprecedented in history." -- Office of Scientific Research and
> Development recommendation, Fall '44
>
> "There are no innocent civilians. It is their government and you
> are fighting a people, you are not trying to fight an armed force
> anymore. So it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent
> bystanders." -- General Lemay
>
> "The entire population of Japan is a proper military target [...]
> There are no civilians in Japan." -- 5th Air Force Weekly
> Intelligence Review, July '45
>
> (Quotes from Michael Sherry, "The rise of American Airpower", Yale
> University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1987.)
>
>
> I think that this is closer to terrorism.
>
>
> Fredrik
And I think that war is hell, and that when you're in a *war*, that it truly
is an 'us and them' scenario. There is no denying that the 'politic', the
'intelligencia' and the 'people' have to be 'on-side' in order to fight and
maintain a war effort--look at Vietnam-- the 'people' were not on side, and
the 'police action' was effectively lost.
So yes there will be those that 'demonize' the enemy--for there is an enemy
in a *war*. Don't quote things from WW2 and say 'there's terrorism'. No,
there was a war.
What is happening today, however, is *not* a war, it is sheer unadulterated
terrorism. The US declared didn't declare war, nor did anyone else. What
we have here are a bunch of murderous cowards who hide in caves and without
pusuing any other venues of getting their point across, they fly planes into
buildings, causing the death of *innocent* civilians.
So I would say--Pearl Harbour--terrorist attack that lead to the declaration
of war. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and any other bombing on Japan--not terrorist
attack for there was a war. Yes the US could have pursued other avenues--we
look back now and the emporer was about to back down and surrender. Yes
maybe LBJ wanted to show the world that the US had the bomb, but that wasn't
the only reason they dropped it--he had the weigh the loss of lives if the
war was prolonged to the loss of lives if the bomb was dropped. Hindsight
is 20/20 and it's easy to be a back-bench yapper when we have all the info.
At the time, however, I will remind you once again, there was a *war* going on.
Anyway, I'm not 'Pro-American' by any stretch of the imagination, but
calling them terrorists is a cheap shot.
Dave K.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Vote against/for...
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| (...) The two atomic bomb raids were not the only US bomb raids on Japan during the second world war. US low level incendiary bomb raids started much earlier. The aim of the night time bomb raids were the civillian population, which largely lived in (...) (22 years ago, 12-Nov-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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