Posted on 11/01/2007 11:58:06 AM PDT by pabianice
When I was a child, my mother had one of the early coffee table books on display in the living room. “The Family of Man” (http://www.amazon.com/Family-Man-Greatest-Photographic-Exhibition/dp/B000J1AMR6/ref=sr_1_1/103-5108515-2439061?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193940207&sr=1-1) was, to a kid in grade school in the mid-50s, a fascinating book. There was little TV in those days, few magazines for kids, and of course, no video games, computers, or cell phones. This book’s 500 or so black and white pictures, taken from many magazines, showed a vast array of people from many nations engaged in a wide variety of activities. I spent hours and hours staring at the pictures, fascinated.
I thought of this book again today at the news that COL Paul Tibbets, pilot of the B-29 “Enola Gay” that helped end World War II by dropping the fission bomb on Hiroshima, had died at the age of 92. Tibbets died at his Columbus home after suffering from diseases of old age for several months. The article noted that Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone because of the unavoidable demonstrations and defacing by today’s Left who, in their continuing love of their fellow man, miss no opportunity to act like savages when addressing their political enemies. I thought of “The Family of Man” because of a picture it had published, allegedly of Tibbets, showing a stubble-covered, bleary-eyed, shaking wreck of a man who was clearly insane, staring into the camera. My mother instructed that this was the picture of Paul Tibbets, who had plunged into alcoholic madness from the guilt and shame over his infamous mission. I loved my mom, but politically, she was the ideological mother of Nancy Pelosi.
According to a more reliable report, Tibbets had said, "I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did… You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were at war. ... You use anything at your disposal… I sleep clearly every night.''
Rest in peace, Colonel. May the country always benefit from men like you and your fellows, despite the misunderstanding and forthright mendacities from those who live the carefree life of Eloi despite the Morlocks who would, were it not for the world’s Paul Tibbetses, eat them while they sleep.
Tibbets (center) and his crew before their famous mission
Bravo!
Amen! My father and many guys like him were in line to go to Japan at the end of the war and Paul Tibbets saved a lot of American lives.
TODAY:
....and a lot of Japanese lives as well.
that last picture is such a subtle statement of the glaring hypocrisy of the left.
i’m being good and wearing my headscarf.. yet showing an impressive amount of cleavage.
It was a hard thing to do, but America made a decision and followed through. All the men on that mission deserve our love and gratitude, NOT endless picketing of funerals. May he RIP.
Ha! You noticed that too, huh? “I’ve got my head covered, praise Allah...but check out my rack!”
}:-)4
I utterly reject the notion that your last picture accurately represents America today.
Just think if Ron Paul had been in office the bomb would have never been dropped. And we’d all be speaking Japanese/German....instead of English/Spanish! lol
Read Richard Frank’s “Downfall” about the history of the decision to drop the bombs. He devastates all the lib/commie revisionist arguments about using the bombs on Japan.
One point he proves beyond a doubt is that dropping the bombs SAVED JAPANESE LIVES. Millions of them, in fact. At the time of the surrender, the Japanese were on the edge of starvation. We were prepared to continue the conventional bombings of the cities and transportation infrastructure, along with the interdiction of all seaborne transport through aerial and submarine attack, and a very effective mining program. If the war continued another 60 or 90 days, the Japanese people would not have made it through the winter without eating each other.
And no, they were not on the “verge of surrender” before the bombs were dropped. A cursory reading of internal military and diplomatic dispatches in June-July 1945 makes that clear. And we knew it because we were reading them at the time.
The mass of the US public and especially the US media...has virtually no understanding or grasp of what Japanese leadership was in 1945. The war was never going to be over...until you really laid down a harsh situation and future reality.
If I had been standing in Tibbets shoes in 1945...I’d do just the same thing, and never look back.
You got that right, FRiend.
Not all of America. Just most American “leaders”.
‘Ha! You noticed that too, huh? “I’ve got my head covered, praise Allah...but check out my rack!”’
ROTFL!
I admit, I did just that.
Spawn of Satan that I obviously am....
I don't know...it is otherwise hard to explain the fact that greater than 60% of our fellow "Americans" oppose the war on terror.
Bears repeating. Either of the two likely alternatives -- firebombing them into submission, or an invasion of Japan -- would have cost millions of Japanese lives, not to mention widespread destruction of their homeland.
The Battle of Okinawa, where 60,000 to 70,000 Japanese military and 150,000 Japanese civilians lost their lives was a hint of what horrors might have been -- multiplied by ten to fifty the number of casualties -- if not for the capitulation of Japan following the A-Bomb attacks.
Mr. Tibbets probably did sleep well at night, and why not. We WERE at war.
I pray he's resting in the arms of Jesus now.
That's certainly a factual statement ... but is it true? It certainly doesn't mirror my personal experience.
I trust middle America is different. But I don't think the majority of Americans live there.
Amen indeed. My father, who went through the entire pacific theater, was in line to go into Japan in the 2nd wave.
Thank you Paul Tibbetts. My father 1st Sargeant 1st Cav was preparing for the invasion. That day was his birthday.
I probably wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for those courageous men. Thank you Gen. Tibbetts.
Perhaps now my Dad can thank him personally. RIP.
Fuzzycat.
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