Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

You know there's an awful smelly pile of stuff the British Empire was responsible for. The Irish Potato Famine.

Quote from: rjhowie on 2015-01-09, 05:32:47

I was rubbished on this and ignored it even when I said I had read a book on it!

You might be more specific. I think that Hiroshima and Nagasaki the most horrid examples of what war produces. Over 225,000 died.

Dear Mrs Jones,
               The war in the Pacific is almost over. Our victory over the Japanese is assured, but there are some battles still to be fought, and in one of those battles your son will be killed.
        
               Your son will be killed, Mrs. Jones, unless we can shorten the war a little and not have to fight the battle in which your son is to die.

               We can do it. We have a powerful new weapon that will kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese and save your son.

               Should we use it, Mrs. Jones?

A cynical fairy tale, trying to legitimate a war crime.

Quote from: krake on 2015-01-17, 08:24:26

A cynical fairy tale, trying to legitimate a war crime.

We are just going to have to disagree on what a war crime is for the period.

More than 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians and an equal numbers of Chinese with 30 million other Asian peoples dead from German and Japanese occupations. You have to stretch things quite a lot to say something done in the effort to stop these regimes was too much. It is sad even two nukes can't compare. On that I'll agree.

"there are worse people than me" is rarely a successful defence for some reason.

Mrs. Jones is deceased, but I'm her authorized spokesman. No, you dunce! What a question!

If it weren't for those bombs I may not be here to agree with that.

  ......... I also believe that President Harry Truman’s decision to use the atomic bombs against Japan almost certainly saved lives. This is undoubtedly true if one accepts the arguments of U.S. leaders at the time; namely, that not using the atomic bomb would have forced the U.S. to launch a full invasion of Japan’s home islands, and this would have killed far more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It’s impossible to know how many people would have perished if allied forces invaded Japan. However, given the stiff resistance U.S. and allied forces faced during the island-hopping campaign of the Pacific War, it would have been many, many times greater than the 200,000+ people that died from the atomic bombings.

In fact, the casualties from the U.S. strategic conventional bombing campaign greatly eclipsed the number of individuals who died from the atomic bombings. The March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo alone killed some 120,000 Japanese. A ground invasion would have resulted in nearly immeasurable more casualties. As one scholar who studied the U.S. invasion plan, Operation Downfall, notes: “depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for Allied casualties and tens of millions for Japanese casualties.”.............. continued

Quote from: Macallan on 2015-01-17, 09:03:12

"there are worse people than me" is rarely a successful defence for some reason.

My grandfather fought in the pacific campaign. If it weren't for those bombs I may not be here to agree with that.

Something from history that decent Americans need to see

That was a war caused by Hitler and his NAZI goons, not by the US - the country that saved your British ass.

The Russians had plenty of help. The British and Americans-- mostly the British-- made sure the Russians got supplies (the), and British and American troops opened up the Western Front and got it going. I don't know how long the Russians could have held out without Western involvement. Hitler's mistake was to get involved in a two-front war. His generals wanted to tell him that, but he wouldn't have listened.

Given such heavy casualties, could the Soviets have really "liberated" all of Europe basically by themselves?

Now all you have to decide is if you're going to hold that against me.

That statement was meant to confirm I don't have to agree with what happened to be the consequences of it. Saying it was wrong goes nowhere but appreciating what was gained can do good. Look at Germany and Japan today. Fine places and fine people, both praised for their unique culture and technical prowess. Am I supposed to hold that against them that they came out so good from a war so long ago?

Thank goodnes there are the odd ex-colonsit thinking here that is not full of "we are the greatest" bore.

our air defences and instead the RAF blasted them in the Battle of Britain due to the RAF being superior.

Not surprised that Hitler aimed the battle of the Bulge at you know who-woo!