70th anniversary of Hiroshima

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I tend to not read comments, so didn't scroll that far down.
 
Most of the world doesn't even read anything much anymore ... they wait for the movie and think it's factual. Many schools aren't even teaching cursive handwriting anymore ... so they can't read anything in script handwriting. It makes me wanto strangle the school boards. The worst people to leave in charge of a school curruculum are parents who never went through it ... but it is happening.
 
GregP said:
Most of the world doesn't even read anything much anymore ... they wait for the movie and think it's factual. Many schools aren't even teaching cursive handwriting anymore ... so they can't read anything in script handwriting. It makes me wanto strangle the school boards. The worst people to leave in charge of a school curruculum are parents who never went through it ... but it is happening.
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A little bit OT, but O.K.
 
That would be good.

Think of all the effort and expense we could save. Wars used to be useful for some population control if nothing else but, when you can wipe out the planet by accident, it doesn't seem too bright, does it?

Much better to give them faster cars and let them have at it. At least the tow trucks, body shops, insurance companies, lawyers, and hospitals will profit from it, not to mention the auto parts stores and oil companies.

Maybe we should have the leaders of the two countries fight it out to the death ... winner takes all. It might slow down the creation of politicians if there was a distinct possibility of a death match.
 
But on the otherhand, war has given us all sorts of cool stuff and rapid advancement of technology.

If it wasn't for warfare, we'd still be fooling around with steam engines, sailing ships and wondering why a little cough and fever could be fatal no matter how much blood they let out of you...
 
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VERY true. Man's greatest achievements in technological advancement have happened mostly during wartime.

Conversely, many of man's worst moments have happened at the same time ... sort of like a nice Hawaiian Punch ... a great day to kick somebody's butt. Altogether a time that brings out both extremes.
 
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This anniversary makes me remember an embarrassing episode that happened 10 years ago.
Yesterday night, ten years ago on August 6th, 2005 in the evening hours I was approached by a school mate and friend that obviously was much more informed than I was and said:
"Did you know today is the anniversary of the drop of the atomic bomb in Japan?"
As a cocky and moronic 17 years old ready to go to my Junior year in High School I responded:
"Who cares, they are all dead anyways"
It wasn't long after this that I began feeling an interest in the history of WWII, a fascination for its technical implications, an admiration for those who served and a silent and respectful observation of the millions of innocent people who perished in this conflict and did not have the opportunity that most of us have had to live long and fulfilling lives and, of course, I have bitterly regretted those words uttered by me in my ignorance that have kept in my memory very clear.
So today, as a person ten years older and a bit wiser I say:
Lest we forget those who perished in that fateful day and let's pray that the world never again witness the use of atomic weapons in anger.
 
Balljoint said:
If you read the Sputnik News site that published the report it gets a bit discouraging.

Can't we just get along?
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No. Apparently not.
The greatest threat to mankind is the tribal mentality that we display through religious factions. We cannot, or will not advance, until we abandon the "My invisible friend is better than your invisible friend" idea. Many advances have been made in my lifetime; here in the U.S. we no longer have "white" and "colored" public amenities, We have an African-American President. (Honestly, never thought I'd see it in my lifetime!) No longer are homosexuals a side joke, (Paul Lind), now we have marriage equality. (Again, never thought I'd see it!) The fact that these things have happened in a relatively short amount of time gives me hope.
Dropping the bombs on Japan, while regrettable, ended a savage war. The Japanese people would have resisted an invasion on their home islands to a degree that would have resulted in the near annihilation of them, as well as a projected one million Allied casualties. The end of the Second World War could have been well into 1950, according to Pentagon estimates. (This is figuring the Japanese armies pulled back into Japan from China and Manchuria.)
The lesson is, we must stop killing ourselves.
We are Earthlings, no more, no less.
 
However, Paul, more wars have been fought over conquest than over religion. If we look at WWII, for an example, it was expansionism that drove the Axis to butt heads with the Allies. Pure greed, megalomania, narcissism and corrupt nationalistic ideologies were the cause. However, it was the faith of the Allies that they could overcome that gave them hope and strength in the darkest hours when things were not going well.

There may have been a thin veil of religion masquerading the ultimate goal in many cases over the ages, but man's primal instinct is to be territorial. This is how he survived in a savage world. The core of the problem is, we haven't moved far enough from our past to be free of that tendency.
 
GregP said:
Not sure faith and hope had as much to do with it as determination and a good manufacturing infrastructure.
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It had alot to do with it, and if you look through memoirs and speeches by Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Patton, McArther and many others, they repeatedly spoke of a faith in a higher power to prevail against the Axis.
 
Words to inspire the masses. I know too many veterans to believe faith had all that much to do with it. They were a hard-bitten, practical lot who knuckled down and got it done when the chips were down.

So, though you may be right, I think not ... not that it matters. What matters is the outcome. None of the histories I've read mentions faith and hope.

Either way or whatever OTHER way it might have happend, at least it got done.

The result is what is important, however it was achieved. I can guarantee the Allied military establishments know how it was done back then. I have little hope the same tactics would work today against modern technology. What you'd almost have to do today is create a big EMP just before you attack.
 
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Whether a person beleives in a higher power or not, the Allies did use faith as inspiration to overcome and succeed.

However, it was not religion that started WWII or WWI, the Korean War, Vietnam, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Spanish-American War, the American Civil War, the War of 1812, the Franco-Prussian War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Hundred Years War and on and on ad infinitum.
 
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