Posted by Guest (Post 1044904)

You're making a highly revisionist argument from the comfort of your office, safely ensconced, 70 years after the fact. The consensus at the time was Japan would not surrender and the risk of a demonstration shot was not worth it ... remember, we only had two bombs at the time.

Keep in mind also that the purpose of war is to kill the spirit, as well as the body, of the enemy so terribly as to make sure that the enenby will not rise again. That's the part your missing. Hiroshima and Nagasaki accomplished the final killing of the Japanese sprit to fight.

Operation Olympus was the planned invasion of Japan and the estimates for allied casualties ran into the millions. <--Read that last number again.

In addition, millions of Japanese would have died. They was also an attempted military coup (Kyujuo incident) after the two bombs had been dropped and it came very close to succeeding.

You don't know your history. Good thing for you, and all of us, that you never had to make a command decision like this as a senior political leader or general officer in the US Army.

Posted by Guest (Post 1044934)

I do know my history very well and you have clearly bought into the propaganda. Yes, we had two bombs but could have made more. Your argument is without merit. While there were plans to invade Japan there was no compelling reason to do so as there ability to wage war had been eliminated. The status of the Emperor was a major issue that could have easily been addressed earlier. Drawing up plans and implementing them are too different issues. The invasion plans became the excuse for dropping the bomb. Your attempted insults say a lot about your lack of character. It must really suck to be you.

Posted by Guest (Post 1044948)

Sorry, but you really don't know your history, and you truly don't know what "making war" in its fullest sense is all about. I explained it earlier. Not trying to be insulting, but it's a simple statement of fact at least based on what you posted. You're indulging in easy revisionism ...

Posted by Guest (Post 1044958)

You clearly can't differentiate between facts and opinions. What I stated as facts are true. Some of what I stated was my opinion. Try rereading my post and perhaps you can start to understand the difference. Try concentrating on words such as "I believe", "may", "may very well". Please spare me your condescending, know-it-all attitude. Again, it reflects badly on you and your inability to converse in a respectful manner. You have established yourself as a light weight.

Posted by Guest (Post 1044965)

All criticisms intended to add accuracy are accepted.
The premise of my post remains the same.
Why did we develop the nuclear bomb? To maim and kill and destroy the enemy (plug in whichever one fits the decision tree at the time).

Also the intent was to contrast the USA's existence and culture and philosophy of life and what ever other parameters would help describe us. We chose to develop and use the bomb!

The contrast was to now look at Iran and ISIS et al, proven terrorists, proudly declaring they will not be denied nuclear capability. Proudly boasting and confirming time and again they will use their weaponry to remove Israel from the earth. That they will come to the USA and burn our cities to the ground.

6th grade level....we are the good guys and we secretly developed and used the bomb knowingly killing hundreds of thousands of people.
The bad guys are developing the same capability...100% bonafide killers and terrorists. Now just how much logic is required to conclude whether they will use the bomb or not.

The point of my post.

Posted by Guest (Post 1051742)

So how is it that China (our BFF Communist Trading Partner) gets 50% of the oil out of Iraq? No arms or military intervention needed.

Posted by Guest (Post 1051769)

That's because self-hating liberals rail against "blood for oil" and all that guilt inducing stuff. In addition, we as a country have become too terminally stupid to say hey, if our troops secured the oil fields, the drilling rights go only to American approved companies or consortiums so that the folks at home pay less for gas. Instead, as you say, Communist China achieves that.

Where is US imperialism when we need it?

Posted by Guest (Post 1051838)

I'm not clear, to the historian who posted this line... Is this actually what you believe and all those letters just came out of your fingers wrong? Or do you really believe that it is unacceptable if the US developed the bomb for military use not for peaceful intent?

The second bomb was dropped on Japan on August 9th. By Aug 13 the next bomb was complete and ready to be shipped and the development line was producing a new one due about every 10 days. The concern of the military was whether to drop them one at a time or consider waiting for a larger supply and using them tactically rather than for psychological effects. So a demonstration bombing on non-populated target would have only delayed the war by about 10 days. It is simply not true that we had 2 bombs and that was the end of our supply.