Posted on 08/10/2005 6:32:47 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
LOL! It's baseball season so I've been skipping my normal 7pm talk radio.
I gave Savage a good three months of air time. Finally couldn't take his outbursts anymore and switched to a Laura Ingraham rebroadcast.
I liked Savage's positions, but didn't need to listen to screaming maniac after a long day's work.
Our talk radio, WRKO, has been running ads with Savage blasting Rush about ratings numbers.
"Christianity and war don't mix".
It worked pretty well during the Crusades.
LLS
Don't even need to read this, Pat is a Nazi and the soviet union won the war against tojo and hitler. He just can't accept reality being a nazi and all.
I wonder if the japanese were worried about the 80+ soviet divisions knocking at their door.
Happy Late Nagasaki Day to All!
Buchanan really is nuts..
If nukes were just about numbers...then they wouldn't really add up much. You can talk about the destruction of downtown Hiroshima or Nagasaki...but people survived that were within 3 miles of the blast zone. And there are lots of city residents still alive today even though they did get a fair dose of radiation. There is a serious disconnect here by the media and some historians. Nukes do have terrible destruction power...but dropping 300 bombs over the area of New York City would just about destroy the entire downtown area...and probably kill over 150,000 people. It is the ultimate plan or desired goal of the destruction that matters.
One of the great destruction efforts of all time...is Kaiserslautern, Germany. In the 1300s, there were around 2,000 residents in the valley considered Kaiserslautern today. You can draw a circle of approximately 5 miles, and these 2,000 locals existed as mostly farmers. Hungarian raiders came into the area, and over a one-year period...between their destruction and killing...barely 400 people remained. It would take over one hundred years for the area to recover and reach its 2,000 population. If the raiders had never come...the population today (around 100,000), would likely be around 200,000. The destruction power of these raiders reset history for this community and can be gauged as the same force or power you might use in a nuke or a 100-bomber effort over a city. Its the death factor that matters, and not the method that was used.
At the time, we possessed all of two bombs and one "device". We were months away from completing a third bomb.
Once the "device" was successfully tested at Trinity site, we knew that the plutonium-based implosion-type bomb would work. There was no doubt that the uranium-based gun-type bomb would work -- it didn't need to be tested.
You can't make the Trinity test do double-duty as a "demonstration", because you weren't 100% confident that it would work. No point in inviting observers, only to have them witness a fizzle.
So, now, after the successful test, if you use one of the two bombs as a "demonstration", you've only got one left. If they don't surrender after the "demonstration", you can deliver one bomb...and that's it.
Wouldn't that be cutting things a little close? Especially, since we now know that it took two bombs to get their attention...
Lemay was Goldwater's running mate - he was made to be a neanderthal and surprising to see his thoughts on Truman.
Cong. Bill Miller of New York was Goldwater's running mate.
"So, now, after the successful test, if you use one of the two bombs as a "demonstration", you've only got one left. If they don't surrender after the "demonstration", you can deliver one bomb...and that's it.
Wouldn't that be cutting things a little close?"
It would not be cutting it close for the hundreds of thousands that died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Don't get me wrong - its hard to argue with success and the bombs did succeed in a early end to the war.
But what if the bomb was dropped in a forested area that would readily demonstrate the power - and if it did not work, none would be the wiser.
Just thinking out loud. Also, were we not to wipe out so many civilians, it might not have rattled the Russian cage - which only got us into a very expensive arms race.
And that is the answer, isn't it? What was done achieved the desired result. It WORKED!
Even though it may have come at the cost of the lives of several hundred thousands at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the apparent alternative was several hundred thousands of allied lives (mostly American) and several millions of Japanese.
Any solution that tried to get cute with those odds ran the risk of being "too clever by half".
Did anyone else see the History Channel Special last night on the documented WWII Japanese Nuclear Bomb Programs and the fact that they exploded a test atomic weapon off the shore of North Korea days before we beat them to the punch at Hiroshima? Does anyone seriously doubt that had they developed the a-bomb before we did, those b@st@rds would not have used it on us? (Most probably on the west coast.)
And that they had cruise missile projects just like Germans did?
Oh yeah!
I have always fully supported the atomic raid on Japan
Hmmm, Pat leaves out, as do others, that the Germans began the policy of bombing cities for the same effects. No one mentions the incendiary bombs dropped by the Germans on the city of Coventry, England, to light this city on fire on the 25th. of August, 1940. No one ever does.
Pat Buchanan is playing bomb thrower, again.
Their cruise missile program (essentially a cheap wooden bare bones plane) pretty much required a kamikaze pilot to correctly target them but they did exist and Kamikazes were not in short supply though the supply diminished inversely with the program's success.
Of course you are, for you know little about that which you speak.
"Lemay was Goldwater's running mate.."
Bill Miller was Goldwater's running mate. Moron.
"Bill Miller was Goldwater's running mate. Moron."
I'm sorry, but have we been introduced?
The problem with bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the same as the fire-bombing of Dresden. The ends don't justify the means. The killing of civilians should be avoided whenever reasonably possible.
Obviously not, but since you don't check on the accuracy of the facts - either strategic or political history - that use in your posts, I didn't think it mattered.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.