Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
And that's exactly what you don't understand about BEING an American. It has nothing to do with left or right. It has EVERYTHING to do with right and wrong.
As a matter of principle, WE have declared we will NOT engage in the evil you're so eager to commit against other human beings. Sadly, that's what your fortunately EX-Traitor In Chief and his criminal cabal of traitors, murderers, torturers, war criminals and war profiteers did. Even worse, they did it in our name and to our everlasting shame.
If you want to torture people, go join Al Qaeda or some tin pot dictatorship, but don't spread your venom around real Americans who reject your toxic insanity for what it is.
FACT is, our country has routinely done evil things in the name of defending its people. Was the bombing of civilians at Nagasaki and Hiroshima not ultimately evil? Did we REALLY need to bomb 100's of thousands of civilians? Would the proper thing, in your mind, not have been to lose 10's of thousands if not 100's of thousands of more Allied lives invading the Japanese mainland?
FACT is, we (And other allies) bombed Dresden into a pile of rubble just weeks before the end of the war. Was that neccessary? Killing 10's of thousands of citizens for no other reason than perhaps to end the war a little quicker.
Thanks for the strawman. Your argument is complete and utter bullshit. All you prove is that you know absolutely nothing about anything, including and especially ethics, morals, history and law.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Obviously, you know nothing about the decision to drop nuclear weapons on Japan. As President Truman notes in these
excerpts from his diary, he wasn't happy about dropping nuclear bombs on Japan.
8/9/45: Excerpt from public statement by President Truman. This was the second time he had publicly given reasons for using the atomic bomb on Japan:
"The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost.
"Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
"We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us." (Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945, pg. 212).
[Even before Hiroshima was a-bombed, hundreds of thousands of civilians had been killed in the conventional bombings of over 60 of Japan's largest cities (Michael Sherry, "The Rise of American Air Power", pg. 314-315, and pg. 413, note 43). Was President Truman unaware that Hiroshima was primarily a city of civilians and that they would be the a-bomb's main victims? Note his reason (8/10/45 below) for halting the atomic bombings.]
8/9/45 Letter to Senator Richard Russell:
[In response to Sen. Russell's wish that Japan be hit with more atomic and conventional bombing:]
"I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare but I can't bring myself to believe that, because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner.
"For myself, I certainly regret the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the 'pigheadedness' of the leaders of a nation and, for your information, I am not going to do it until it is absolutely necessary...
"My object is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a humane feeling for the women and children in Japan." (Barton Bernstein, Understanding the Atomic Bomb and the Japanese Surrender: Missed Opportunities, Little-Known Near Disasters, and Modern Memory, Diplomatic History, Spring 1995, material quoted from pg. 267-268).
[8/10/45: Japan makes surrender offer to Allies.]
[8/10/45: Having received reports and photographs of the effects of the Hiroshima bomb, Truman ordered a halt to further atomic bombings. Sec. of Commerce Henry Wallace recorded in his diary on the 10th, "Truman said he had given orders to stop atomic bombing. He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn't like the idea of killing, as he said, 'all those kids'." (John Blum, ed., "The Price of Vision: the Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946", pg. 473-474).]
President Truman approved the use of nuclear weapons because he believed it would shorten the war and save many more American lives that would otherwise be lost in an invasion of Japan, itself.
Operation Downfall was the U.S. plan for the invasion of Japan. It didn't happen because Japan surrendered after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will never know how many lives would actually have been lost in that invasion, but the record does include estimated losses:
Operation Downfall
Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan near the end of World War II. The operation was cancelled when Japan surrendered after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan.
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Estimated casualties
Because the U.S. military planners assumed "that operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population", high casualties were thought to be inevitable, but nobody knew with certainty how high. Several people made estimates, but they varied widely in numbers, assumptions, and purposes ? which included advocating for and against the invasion ? afterwards, they were reused to debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Casualty estimates were based on the experience of the preceding campaigns, drawing different lessons:
- In a study done by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in April, the figures of 7.45 casualties/1,000 man-days and 1.78 fatalities/1,000 man-days were developed. This implied that a 90-day Olympic campaign would cost 456,000 casualties, including 109,000 dead or missing. If Coronet took another 90 days, the combined cost would be 1,200,000 casualties, with 267,000 fatalities.
- A study done by Adm. Nimitz's staff in May estimated 49,000 casualties in the first 30 days, including 5,000 at sea.[38] A study done by General MacArthur's staff in June estimated 23,000 in the first 30 days and 125,000 after 120 days. When these figures were questioned by General Marshall, MacArthur submitted a revised estimate of 105,000, in part by deducting wounded men able to return to duty.
- In a conference with President Truman on June 18, Marshall, taking the Battle of Luzon as the best model for Olympic, thought the Americans would suffer 31,000 casualties in the first 30 days (and ultimately 20% of Japanese casualties, which implied a total of 70,000 casualties). Adm. Leahy, more impressed by the Battle of Okinawa, thought the American forces would suffer a 35% casualty rate (implying an ultimate toll of 268,000).[42] Admiral King thought that casualties in the first 30 days would fall between Luzon and Okinawa, i.e., between 31,000 and 41,000.
Of these estimates, only Nimitz's included losses of the forces at sea, though kamikazes had inflicted 1.78 fatalities per kamikaze pilot in the Battle of Okinawa, and troop transports off Kyushu would have been much more exposed.
- A study done for Secretary of War Henry Stimson's staff by William Shockley estimated that conquering Japan would cost 1.7 to 4 million American casualties, including 400,000 to 800,000 fatalities, and five to ten million Japanese fatalities. The key assumption was large-scale participation by civilians in the defense of Japan.
Outside the government, well-informed civilians were also making guesses. Kyle Palmer, war correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, said half a million to a million Americans would die by the end of the war. Herbert Hoover, in memorandums submitted to Truman and Stimson, also estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 fatalities, and were believed to be conservative estimates; but it is not known if Hoover discussed these specific figures in his meetings with Truman. The chief of the Army Operations division thought them "entirely too high" under "our present plan of campaign."
Dresden
The first sentence in
Wikipedia's entry about the Bombing of Dresden shows how full of shit you are.
Bombing of Dresden in World War II
The Bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between 13 February and 15 February 1945, twelve weeks before the surrender of the Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) of Nazi Germany, remains one of the most controversial Allied actions of the Second World War.
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(continues)
It's too late to second guess the results of not bombing Dresden, and it's too late to undo the damage. It's never too late to mourn the loss of life and to acknowledge and learn from our mistakes.
Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
So, your statement that we declared we will not engage in evil is just complete and utter BULLSHIT. We have slaughtered 100's of thousands of 'innocent' people to protect our interests and the lives of Americans and our allies.
If your point is that, as a nation, we have killed others in our own defense, you've proven nothing.
If your point is that, as a nation, we have comitted some terrible wrongs under the misguided or malevolent leadership of one President or another, our obligation is to learn from our mistakes, and NOTHING in that history excuses the blatantly criminal acts committed by your EX-Traitor In Chief and his criminal gang.
And the FACT is that other Presidents have done things so much worse than this torture that it makes this look like slapping a mosquito off your arm.
It will be interesting to see how far anyone gets with that argument when they're tried in Federal court and at the Hague. :roll:
*I* support torture against people who want to kill me and my family.
Acting on what you support would put you in violation of U.S. and international laws, just as it has the Bushwacko torturers, murderers and traitors.
I fully support our President's making the decision to torture when necessary to protect the American people.
You can't provide ONE (if you can count that high) instance where torture protected or saved ANY American lives. The only ones making such claims are the Bushwhacko criminals, themselves, and they haven't produced any verifiable evidence to support their claims, either.
The moral high ground does me absolutely no good if it means I am going to be DEAD. So, call me whatever name you want, call me evil, call me an idiot, call me a terrorist.. I'll take whatever label you want to give me. Ultimately this issue comes down to one thing for me:
I SUPPORT ANY AMERICAN PRESIDENT TAKING ACTIONS INCLUDING KILLING, TORTURING, AND NAME CALLING OUR ENEMIES IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE LIVES OF ME, YOU, AND EVERY OTHER AMERICAN.
What will you do when you find that the person you torture is innocent? :shocked:
Don't think it could happen? Would you be suprised that
it already has?
Of the more than 770 individuals known to have been incarcerated for some period at Guantánamo, the U.S. government has charged only 23 with war crimes as of October 2008.16 These figures argue in favor of a full investigation to determine how and why the U.S. has held so many men for so long without adequate legal safeguards. Our qualitative data and secondary sources indicate that many detainees held in U.S. custody in Kandahar and Bagram, Afghanistan repeatedly experienced physical abuse, deprivations, humiliation, and degradation. The conditions in which detainees were held, as well as their treatment at these facilities, contravened international guidelines for the humane treatment of detainees, violated fundamental cultural and religious taboos against public nudity, interfered with religious practice, and created an environment that maximized physical and psychological discomfort and uncertainty. Respondents held at Bagram in particular reported abuses that included beatings, stress positions, prolonged hanging by the arms, sleep deprivation, intimidation, and being terrorized with dogs.
Without our ethics, morals, conscience and rule of law, there is no United States of America. You are an embarrassment to our nation and to humanity.
