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  1. >By dropping the bomb on populated cities could we demonstrated our willingness to use the weapon ruthlessly and thus avoided many wars

    That’s acceptable only if you believe that force is the only way to avoid conflicts. Iae, I don’t think the latter half of the 20th was conflict free, rather the opposite. Not fair to compare to the WWI and II preceding it, those were the outliers.

  2. Everybody say, “Is he all right?”
    And everybody say, “What’s he like?”
    Everybody say, “He sure look funny.”
    That’s…Montgomery Clift, honey!

    and then, for the hangover, there’s this by Richard Thompson:

    My heart starting beating like a song by the Clash
    I was writing checks that my body couldn’t cash

  3. 30k is less than 100. Not saying it’s ok but of course there’s a reasonable force equation even in war. And these were civilians. It’s fair to say that the US has killed more civilians than any other country except Germany, and that’s not a record I;m proud of

  4. By dropping the bomb on populated cities could we demonstrated our willingness to use the weapon ruthlessly and thus avoided many wars. The relative lack of armed conflict in the second half of the 20th century, considering the social and economic adjustments that were going on, is amazing.

    “In order to establish order, you have to beat up a couple of guys real good first, and make sure everyone is watching.” – Niccolo Macchiavelli*

    *Not really. But he said a bunch of stuff pretty much like this.

  5. dibs, true but now we’re back at reality vs speculation. True the Japanese were pretty irrational in the face of certain eventual defeat. But still say there was no reason to do it. And twice (conventional statement is to ‘show it was not a one-off’, then why shouldn’t the II have been dropped off the waters of Tokyo or something if it was to prove its power?)

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