Thank you-that is a compliment. You can see from my initial response that I have had many discussions over the years about the strategic bombing of WWII including the use of nuclear weapons against Japan.
I have a fellow Freeper who I greatly admire and respect, but he has a very different opionion than I do on the use of nuclear weapons.
I support it as the right action at that time in history, which I did not live through, and I don’t wish to view the use of those weapons through the prism of the social mores of the 21st Century.
He feels that we surrendered the moral high ground by using nuclear weapons, and he has very good and well thought out reasons for his assessment.
I disagree with him, but...I fully respect his opinion. But he and I have been able to talk it out and conclude that we disagree and leave it at that.
But too often, in those discussions with some people on this forum, the opinions and the elbows can become very sharp, indeed, ad hominem, and I tend to disengage because I have an extremely quick temper, and that is to my disadvantage.
It is why I rarely opine on Civil War or Ukraine matters on this forum. In many aspects, one is not allowed to disagree. It all quickly becomes a vehicle for ad hominem attacks.
And that is not to say I have not participated in those attacks myself, I have. But in all cases, I try to mend fences, because unlike some Freepers, I don’t wish to have a list of people to avoid. If my efforts at public reconciliation on the forum are rebuffed, I just avoid interacting with them. In twenty years, there are possibly about five at most I just don’t interact with at all.
It isn’t what I come here for, and I get the distinct impression, that is EXACTLY why some people DO come here.