On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 4:41 PM, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 12:41 AM, Jason Resch <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > If you haven't seen it already (anyone on this list) I highly recommend >> watching Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States. >> > > Oliver Stone is the same jackass who was behind that moronic Kennedy > assassination conspiracy movie. > What was moronic about it? > > > I learned more about US history in those 10 episodes than throughout all >> of high school. >> > > I haven't seen the series because I made a special effort not to, so I > really shouldn't comment about it, but I will say that in general it would > be wise not to believe everything Oliver Stone tells you. > That advice goes for any source. Adding new sources of information never hurts so long as you bear that in mind. > > >> > It was the Russians declaring war against Japan that concerned them the >> most, not the bomb. >> > > There are lots of theories but we will never know if the Japanese would > have surrendered without the bomb or the invasion but I do know one thing, > it wasn't unreasonable for the American's to expect that they would not, > and it wasn't unreasonable for the American's to expect that a invasion > would cause a gargantuan number of casualties. > The estimates were in the tens of thousands, which is high but still a small fraction of those killed by the bombs. > I also know that even 2 nuclear bombs AND the Russians declaring war > almost wasn't enough for them to quit, even after all that there was a > unsuccessful coup by fanatical military officers to keep the war going and > they nearly prevented the Emperor's surrender speech from being broadcast. > > Had the US lost the war, would not those who authorized fire bombing cities and nuking civilian population centers be charged and convicted of war crimes? > > > From point of view of the Japanese, does it really matter if it took 1 >> bomber or 200 to devastate a city? >> > > Yes it matters because now 200 bombers can devastate 200 cities, and that > causes 200 times as much damage as 200 bombers devastating one city. > Perhaps so, if it were credible that we had amassed a stockpile of such weapons before using any of them. In any case, I'd recommend you watch at least the first few episodes of that series (which cover WW2 and the bomb) and re-evaluate the true motives behind the bomb's use. Jason -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
