Loki

Indeed. approximately 350 000 japanese people were killed due to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings, and the after-effects of radiation continue to affect people to this very day.

By contrast, around 10 000 allied troops were killed due to D-Day.

It was estimated at the time that a direct assault on Japan would have resulted in up to one million American casualties and five million Japanese casualties, and the A-Bomb was considered the best way of settling the war with minimum casualties.

My personal view? perhaps they were a bit too hasty about deploying the a-bomb, and perhaps other alternatives should have been considered... but whats done is done, and it did effectively end World War II.


Anyway, back to the original thread matter.

Er, well, in all honesty, i almost am starting to respect Bush now. It would have been very easy to make sure that WMD's were found in Iraq, even if they had fallen out the back of a US convoy truck.

Anyway, similiar to my stance on WW2, whats done is done, and now we should look for a way of setting up a sustainable leadership in iraq, creating close ties to the new leadership regarding oil, and withdrawing from there as soon as we can.


P.S. (i really hate the term WMD, its one of the most annoying tautologies i've ever come across).

Cozmo

Did Hitler possess WMD that posed a threat to our National Security before we entered WW2? Was our Govt completely aware of the concentration camps and the millions of Jews that were being killed before we went to war against Germany? I am sorry to use that as an example-that is not fair I know, but it was a war that we entered reluctantly and I don't know anyone that thinks we did the wrong thing back then.

I agree that our Govt used this WMD threat to our national security as a way to "sell" the war in Iraq to the general public, but now that we have gone to war and removed Saddam from power, that original sales pitch is no longer relevant. Maybe that sales pitch was based on the best available intelligence data at the time. I think the mistake that was made was that our leaders disclosed shaky intelligence information that was not fully verified at the time. Bush talked about this information as if it was proven when in fact, as we know now, the data was suspect or false. So we feel cheated, lied to, hurt that our Govt told us one thing to get support for the cause and then downplayed that same thing after accomplishing the main goal-to remove Saddam from power. Get over it-we removed an evil dictator from power and that was a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Do you really think this is the first time our Govt has tried to "sell" the public in order to gain support for something. Didn't Clinton "sell" us on a National Health Care plan to get elected?

I guess my main point here is that Bush and his Croonies used this WMD threat to sell the war to the general public. Oh well, it is not the first time I've been duked by the Government. I truly believe that our Govt had enough intelligence about Iraq to justify the war and I doubt we, the general public, will ever know about this intelligence as it may jeopardize future intelligence gathering methods. The end result here was still a positive thing.

If the only information you believe is what you hear from the media, then you will only be getting half the story and, more likely than not, hearing a very left-wing bias towards the whole story.

debaser

miked10270,

Aniston Depot is not in a city, the protective gear was issued to people living downwind from the site in case of an accident.

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Zeld2.0

You're wrong on Germany btw.

The Tripartite pact said that any of the 3 Axis nations (japan, italy, germany) that went to war with a nation except russia, the other nations would declare war as well.

So after Japan went to war with the U.S., on Dec. 7., Germany declared war just 4 days later on Dec. 11.

Yet to this very day, nobody has ANY idea as to why Hitler gave Roosevelt the war Roosevelt wanted badly. The U.S. public was more interested in kicking Japan's ass than Germany. But Hitler declared war so we said, 'why not kick his while we're at it.'

Publius

I'd just like to point out that officially the United States does not have or maintain chemical or biological WMD, winky winky. Those weapons that we had to destroy didnt actually belong to us, they belonged to some other country. We were mearly holding on to them to keep them in safe keeping until we could return them to their rightfull owners, winky winky. Oh no, the only WMD that the US officially has and maintains are nukes, and lots of of them. Of course, this is sort of overlooking a few minor details, like the fact that our 22,000 ton fuel air bombs have effect as a small nuke only without all that nasty radiation making them conventional weapons not WMD, and the fact that some of our small tactical nukes can be contained within a 50ft by 50ft room and even leave most of the paint left on the walls, but hey they are still nukes so they must be WMD. But no chemical or biological weapons here, not in the US, they arent ours, we are just holding on to them for someone, out there, somewhere.

BigGov

We've used WMD's twice, both for good reasons.

Saddam used WMD's in war and to suppress uprisings.

Do you see Bush or any other president nuke a city so they can get more votes in the next election? What's that? That's outrageous? Not in Iraq.

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One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

jumpingbeans

Who cares.....we are allways right.....I can hear the chant....USA..USA..USA...

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USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,USA, USA,

miked10270

Yes, Absolutely. You even Drive on the "Right" side of the road... As opposed to theCORRECT side of the road.

Mike.

PS... It's actually spelled "a-L-w-a-y-s" in English, but maybe "US English" is different.

auswegian

The United States has used WMDs many times, not just on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Can anyone say 'Agent Orange'?

And people who chant "USA, USA, USA" are really no different from Australians who chant "Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie". If your best argument consists of loudly grunting some nationalist mantra, you have to be wrong.

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"Look, I'm pretty relaxed for a guy who just lost money on a rave. And who's currently speeding down the highway drunk off my tits. And I'm being chased by someone in a blue Corolla. Woohoo! I just ran a red light!"

Jasmar

what I never understood was why the military didn't both planting some weapons during the fighting in case we really didn't find anyhitng

BigGov

Agent Orange is a friggin herbicide, not a WMD.

And why didn't we plant anything? Because we haven't found the items yet. Of course, we might all be wrong, there might not be any WMD's in Iraq anymore. They might be on the back of some trucks driven around by Al Queda now. Fact is, we don't know where the WMD's are, we just know they're unaccounted for.

__________________
One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"