I got out of the military business because I couldn't personally work on a program that would cause injury to human beings. But I think it's wrong to apply 21st century standards of accuracy and the avoidance of civilian targets to mid-20th century strategic bombing.
Sherman had it right: war is hell.
Yes, I agree some of America's finest young people turned out to be evil. Unfortunately, we don't have a command structure that penalizes anybody but the lowest ranks. What was the highest ranking soldier who's been court-martialed in Iraq? Sergeant? That's shameful and disgusting, and there's no excuse for it.
There is an excuse for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It isn't the sort of excuse we'd accept today, but given the technology of the times, I think the issue of whether it was better to drop those bombs is definitely open for discussion.
And there isn't any excuse for Nanjing or Bataan. Not then, not when our soldiers do it today.
But wagingpeace.org has quite a bit bad to say about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and nothing whatever to say about Nanjing and Bataan. That's not only unfair, it's twisted and rather disgusting logic.
Besides that, it discounts the possibility of moral action. Start off with the notion that everytning America does is wrong, and you lose the leverage to affect the really despicable acts the Bush administration has permitted (and in some cases ordered) our troops to do. Wagingpeace.org, in its assumption that America is evil denies the possibility of saying one administration is worse than another, and it reduces the chances that the situation will be corrected.
There is a moral difference between necessary action and gratuitous action. It's not a great difference, and in a better world the difference would be smaller still. But there's a difference nonetheless, and ignoring gratuitous evil and harping on necessary evil (and minimizing the necessity) are unhelpful and ultimately useless.
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branchandroot
Re: the news we don't hear
Date: 2006-08-16 06:29 am (UTC)Sherman had it right: war is hell.
Yes, I agree some of America's finest young people turned out to be evil. Unfortunately, we don't have a command structure that penalizes anybody but the lowest ranks. What was the highest ranking soldier who's been court-martialed in Iraq? Sergeant? That's shameful and disgusting, and there's no excuse for it.
There is an excuse for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It isn't the sort of excuse we'd accept today, but given the technology of the times, I think the issue of whether it was better to drop those bombs is definitely open for discussion.
And there isn't any excuse for Nanjing or Bataan. Not then, not when our soldiers do it today.
But wagingpeace.org has quite a bit bad to say about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and nothing whatever to say about Nanjing and Bataan. That's not only unfair, it's twisted and rather disgusting logic.
Besides that, it discounts the possibility of moral action. Start off with the notion that everytning America does is wrong, and you lose the leverage to affect the really despicable acts the Bush administration has permitted (and in some cases ordered) our troops to do. Wagingpeace.org, in its assumption that America is evil denies the possibility of saying one administration is worse than another, and it reduces the chances that the situation will be corrected.
There is a moral difference between necessary action and gratuitous action. It's not a great difference, and in a better world the difference would be smaller still. But there's a difference nonetheless, and ignoring gratuitous evil and harping on necessary evil (and minimizing the necessity) are unhelpful and ultimately useless.