NP Zinn on bombing, war, politics

[Doug Millison]

http://www.progressive.org/zinn0800.htm

  "The Bombs of August" by Howard Zinn

"[....]The bombing of Hiroshima remains sacred to the American 
Establishment and to a very large part of the population in this 
country. [....]  To question Hiroshima is to explode a precious myth 
which we all grow up with in this country--that America is different 
from the other imperial powers of the world, that other nations may 
commit unspeakable acts, but not ours. [....] The British scientist 
P.M.S. Blackett, one of Churchill's advisers, wrote after the war 
that dropping the atomic bomb was 'the first major operation of the 
cold diplomatic war with Russia.' [....] Can we believe that our 
political leaders would consign hundreds of thousands of people to 
death or lifelong suffering because of "political repercussions" at 
home? [....] Did millions die in Southeast Asia because American 
Presidents wanted to stay in office? [....] Of course, political 
ambition was not the only reason for Hiroshima, Vietnam, and the 
other horrors of our time. There was tin, rubber, oil, corporate 
profit, imperial arrogance. There was a cluster of factors, none of 
them, despite the claims of our leaders, having to do with human 
rights, human life. The wars go on, even when they are over. Every 
day, British and U.S. warplanes bomb Iraq, and
  children die. Every day, children die in Iraq because of the 
U.S.-sponsored embargo. Every day, boys and girls in Afghanistan step 
on land mines and are killed or mutilated. The Russia of "the free 
market" brutalizes Chechnya, as the Russia of "socialism" sent an 
army into Afghanistan. In Africa, more wars. [....]"

I've only quoted a few bits and pieces, just enough, I hope, to get 
some of you to read the article.  If you plan to trash Zinn, may I 
very gently suggest that you at least read the article first, instead 
of trying to reconstruct his arguments based on these excerpts?  Or 
don't, if that's your bent. You'll wind up looking  more informed, 
and way more intellectually honest, if you read the article, though.

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