RE: i was outta line, sorry
>A nuclear\atom bomb can not create
>a huge crater in the
>ground. It can create a
>crater, but it won't be
>very deep. Most of the
>mountain would still be there
>(correct me if I'm wrong).
Actually it makes some pretty nice craters, with not much surface radiation might I add, if the nuke is buried underground and then detonated. Surface blasts do not do much however. Most surface blasts are detonated above the ground target, not on it because it will do more damage to more area.
>What I believe the U.S. should
>have done was drop it
>on military installations instead of
>cities populated with millions of
>inhabitants.
For the most part, most military installations in Japan were situated near major cities. Personally I'm surprised the USA didn't warn Japan first, there wasn't any real need for surprised, and hell if they gave the warning "we're using a new super-weapon on your city if you do not unconditionally surrender now" and then dropped the bomb they would probably only have to use one.
There are three interpretations, the first and the one declared to the public, that the bombs were used to end the war with Japan as quick as possible so that hundreds of thousands more lives would be saved from having to use an invasion, the second reason, that the bombs were really an experiment to see how much damage they'd do to a city (as evident because they were two kinds of bombs, uranium and plutonium) and therefore send a clear message the the USSR that they better not pull anything, and third, and nowadays most accepted, that the reasoning behind dropping the bombs was a mixture of both, that the message to Russia could be conveyed and that it would save lives from an invasion.
It is worthy to note that Japan really didn't have huge military installations either. The goal of the bombs was to make a statement, not really to take out a huge mound of forces. Japan was pretty much beat, but the actual takeover of Japan to force the country to surrender would've cost a lot of lives, more Japanese than American might I add because the ratio of Japanese to American deaths was 22:1. The Japanese were also apt to never surrender and throw away their lives for the emperor. What was known as "Sherman Carpets" were Japanese children strapping dynamite to themselves and hurling themselves under tanks to stop them. Japanese loyalty was absolute.
It was estimated that the nukes would only kill about 50,000 people *max* but the reality was that it took out about 250,000 people (not all at once). Also, the city of Kyoto (if I remember right) was the original target, but because it was noted that Kyoto was a cultural center, rather than merely a city to target, so it was spared in favor of another city (I forget which).
>And Vietnam? Another example of the
>U.S. trying to settle a
>situation with violence and not
>negotiations.
8-ball, do you actually expect the Vietnamese to forfeit their communist government because of negotiations? The idea of containment was to keep communism where it was and not let it spread. Yeah, if Vietnam said "hey, give us a better alternative and we'll go with you," the USA would probably have stepped in to fix the place up, better than give it to the "reds" right?
>It's fantastic that a
>big nation wants to spend
>money on stopping conflicts, but
>settling them by killing members
>of the more left-wing side
>with extreme prejudice just isn't
>the right idea.
Killing people with prejudice? I don't follow you.
>Do you
>think that people in Hiroshima
>and Nagasaki were happy to
>have all that would remain
>of their lives etched into
>eternity by their shadows on
>walls?
I don't think the people of Nanking particularly enjoyed being raped, slaughtered, buried alive, and just about everything and anything, and probably worse that went on in Germany with the Nazis and Jews, by 500,000 Japanese soldiers either.
Understand that war is never a pretty thing, and that when it *is* a war, it's a no-hold barred issue. War is war, and if you judge the methods of war by todays stadards or by any standards, you're not going to like it.
Perhaps you also feel remorse for the German citizens who had Berlin leveled by the Allies? And of course for the people of Stalingrad who were shelled by the Nazis? Well that's war, and *every* nation has been responsible for attacks on civilians. Serbia certainly isn't an angel, take Milosevic's attack on Ethnic Albanian villages in search for KLA rebels. His armies tromped through the villages, killed the males, in some cases raped the women, booted people out, and burned the village to the ground. What do you have to say to that?
How about Russia attacking the Chechnya rebels? I'm sure many civilians have been hurt in that scuffle. They should be thankful Russia isn't using Soviet-style retaliation.
Nobody is holier than thou in war.
>Do you think that
>all those women in Vietnam
>wanted to get raped and
>shot? NO!
Do you think Chinese girls in the dormatories in Nanking wanted to be raped and their brothers and fathers shot when they came to help when they heard their screams? No!
War is an ugly thing. Realize it.
>Yes, war does bring about casualties.
>NO, it does not require
>the U.S. to stick its
>nose into everyting and kill
>children.
You always say "children" like they are something that is targetted by the USA. They're not. They're a casualty of war. Nations don't waste money making war to kill the children of another nation. Get that through your head.
>Bombing civilians is just
>plain wrong, and nothing you
>can say will justify it.
*Targetting* civilians is wrong, unless they're a threat and even then restraint should be exercised. Bombs are targetted (usually) at military installations (unless the map data is old and you accidentally hit a Chinese Embassy), and if civilians are nearby, that's just too bad. They're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
>>Q: Who won the race down
>>the tunnel, the black guy
>>or the Pole?
>>A: The Pole because the black
>>guy had to stop to
>>write "motherfucker" on the wall.
>
>Not funny.
I don't particularly like racist/ethnic jokes myself..
-Xotor-
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