Do you think this is OK or not? (video of Watertown home raid)

If nukes can save lives and end wars, why were they never used again? Funny how that works.

"Saving" 1,000,000 blood thirsty American soldiers was not worth what was done to a few hundred thousand innocent civilians in Japan. You are completely delusional and totally propagandized to even try to justify that.

Dying is an occupational hazard when you're a soldier. It should not be when you're a civilian.

Some of you are honestly disgusting human beings, and I use the term "human beings" loosely.

lol, you watch a showtime special and tell me to do research?

please, i have a degree in military history from one of the top colleges on the planet and you're suggesting a showtime television show is more valid?

here, i don't read japanese and i am sure you don't either, but here's the emporer's words in english re: the bomb



russia THEN invaded manchuria day later

i can really go on & on with reams of facts on this.

a direct nuclear assault on the mainland v. an indirect assault on manchuria and showtime thinks the bomb didn't amount to anything-

don't let revisionist history shows on television try and change history for tv ratings.

also, read truman's autobiography, he goes into detail about his decision.

that's not what happened. hindsight is 20-20, you are making the honest mistake junior historians make, you are looking at the past through rose colored glasses of the current.

proper recounting of history requires you look at the events in the light of the times of the event. and the fact is civilian targets were fair game in ww2. we tried it the other way when we 1st entered the war, but that didn't work. we didn't start it, we weren't the only ones, all sides did it.

I have to congratulate the US forces for their speedy apprehension of those two terrorists, that having surveillance cameras everywhere is a great thing, however intrusive it seems to be. To be able to identify those two within 24 hours was brilliant. Lessons have to be learnt each time anything like this happens, lots of good and bad things can be worked on. What saddened me after the final terrorist was captured, was the world news coverage showing thousands [of mainly youngsters] out on the street, shouting USA, USA, like it was a Ryder Cup victory (remember them?!), turning a grave situation into it a carnival atmosphere, police cars roaming, honking their horns in appreciation. This also seemed to be explained by the fact it was 420 day, they were all stoned ? cops too.

The American reaction to such events tends to be different from anywhere else around the world, the National Guard on the streets, a no-fly zone, that every senator claimed their post contained Ricin, Louisiana closed down highways and harbours because someone accidentally left a briefcase near a post office. Obama desperate to appear on tv to petrify a nation as if aliens had landed and nuked New York. After Twin Towers idiot Bush told the word America was at war. The whole point of terrorism is to terrify, and America is brilliant at being that. And having most of the population armed didn't do much good, that should shut a lot of pro-gunners up.

Those who read that British ex-Prime Minister Thatcher died the other week, should note how she reacted when the IRA attempted to kill her in 1994, they blew up the hotel, five died, many injured, and she was very lucky to escape the blast. Next morning, 9.30am, she strode out and acted as if nothing had happened. Again, when the IRA bombed the City of London, enormous destruction, yet 36 hours later the whole area was opened for business as usual. These things need to be played down when they can, or the terrorists really are winning [in America].

Treat Tsarnaev as a criminal, not a terrorist, throw him in with the rapists, killers and not very nice people, don't make him special, by putting him in a quasii-prisoner of war detention camp, or killing him and making him and his brother martyrs.

Robbie,

Stick to your arguments about the modern police state, I disagree with you about them but they do have some validity. Your arguments about how WWII ended are totally invalid (even if you saw them in a Showtime special), anyone who has done a fair amount of reading about the war, lived through it or spoken extensively with people who did has come away with the same conclusion.... The bombs were horrific weapons and that is precisely why they ended the war years before it would have ended otherwise.

Germany was in the process of developing equally sinister weapons including long range gas weapons, nukes and biological weapons. Japan had zero interest in surrender and Germany was using Japan as a buffer to buy time for their R&D. It almost worked. They made the tragic mistake of losing many of the worlds best scientists simply because they happened to be Jews and that is primarily the reason we reached the nuclear age before Germany did. That lead to the quick surrender of Japan, isolation of Germany and end of the war.

Killing 60,000 people at once in a big blast is much better than killing hundreds of thousands via hand to hand combat and drowning over the course of a few years. The same logic applies to Watertown. Inconveniencing a whole town for a day is far better than cleaning up body parts for the next several years. The message is simple. Bomb anything and we will capture or kill you in 48 hours. It's a much better message than the one we used to use, bomb something and we will invade a country that had nothing to do with it.

Just curious if you have seen the series by Nial Ferguson "war of the worlds"? its a 6 part series so is a little long but since you have a degree in military history and have an interest in it I wonder what you make of it, he goes over many of your points. If you haven't seen it It's a good watch on the nature of the 20th century conflicts.

heres a link to the youtube playlist if your looking for something to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5AbQ...6CE7D51E1F77B5

I agree with this. Every news station was all over this for the next few days and still is. The UK had a ban on terrorist news. Sort of hurts that freedom of speech thing but overall it is a great idea. Why let the next nutbag get all jonesed over how he is going to be famous.

Robbie is right, I'm learning about it in history class right now. They knew Japan was going to fold but Truman wanted to bomb them anyway to send a message to Stalin.

I dont know, it really is the best way to handle the situation. Stop everything like after 911, they grounded all planes very quickly so nothing was in the sky.

Yes and yes

Good post, and really does explain the 'problem' I have with people here saying it's ok, it's just the police's job etc. I'm not from the US (UK here) so haven't experienced the environment that makes it natural for me to roll over and believe that patting down civilians and barking at them when they are clearly NOT the suspects the police are looking for is perfectly acceptable behaviour. 'rolling over' being my interpretation, based on what I'd put up with, not an insult to those with a different POV.

Maybe that's why I was called on being a keyboard 'tough guy' for stating how I see it, but yeah, environment sets your belief system, and having the police here in the UK act the way they do sometimes is bad enough that it gets my back right up, hence my 'shock' at seeing the procedure in that video, and inability to grasp why some people think it's acceptable.

Either way there's fuck all I can do about a past event, and I believe that everyone is free to believe what they choose to, so I'm gonna practice what I preach - or attempt to anyway, and read but not post

None of that makes it acceptable. Dropping atomic bombs on civilians is not acceptable no matter how someone tries to spin it or write it in the history books.

Man will always find a way to justify his horrific actions and senseless murder of others.

Solid post.

i will certainly tune in to this, thank you, no i have not seen it.

there is a lot of controversy right now surrounding this view on the surrender.

did you know who came up with this view? oliver stone.

as i pointed out above, the emperor DID react to the bomb, in fact, he said enough, we will sign the surrender