But they WORKED. In total war sometimes the optimum solution is not the moral solution.
The West will be at total war with islam in time. The question is, do we fight it on our terms or do we let the infant level of power that islam wields grow until it actually has a chance to kill us all.
It is not that complex of an issue. Thousands were dying in very brutal fighting. And the closer we got to Japan, the more brutal the conflicts were becoming. No matter what we tried to inflict on the Japanese to get them to stop, they would not stop fighting.
Everyone deseperately wanted an end to the fighting and the misery and the personal tragedies being visited on thousands of families back home. We wanted peace and the only way to acheive that against an adversary that would not give up was to win the war.
A solution came in the form of a bomb, a very big new bomb. Not a lot was known about it except that it would be very big and would be horrible for those where it fell. And it was felt that this was the best chance for ending the war. We knew it would kill many, many people. But we also new that to get to the same conclusion - an end to the war - just as many would die in conventional bombings and fighting.
We had a decision to make. Do we drop this thing knowing it will kill many in an instant or do we continue to fight towards the same conclusion and have just as many die slowly? We made our decision.
We dropped one of two bombs. It was a very big blow to Japan. We then isssued communication to Japan asking them to surrender and stop fighting. We waited a week for their answer. Conventional fighting continued elsewhere with many thousands continuing to dye on the battlefied and the seas.
No word came from Japan so after a week we dropped a second bomb and again we waited. The answer came. Japan surrendered.
It does not seem like a complex set of circumstances to me. What is it that you find hard to sort through? I presume you do not think the bomb should have been dropped.