Von Braun

[David Morris]

Henry, I agree with your reasoning below.

On the other front, I've been watching some of Ken Burns' "The War"
documentary,  and found the episode which focused on the Pacific
front, leading up to the A-bomb's being dropped on Nagasaki &
Hiroshima to be enlightening.  Conventional battle against the
Japanese on their own soil was devastating for the Allied Forces in
terms of casualties.  The Japanese were dug-in, fiercely defending
every inch, and their Air Force consisted of suicide bombers hurling
themselves and their planes at Allied ships.  Before the A-bombs were
dropped, everyone expected huge numbers of Allied casualties before
the Japanese would be defeated.  As we know, even after the first bomb
was dropped the  Emperor refused to surrender, an exhibit of their
defiance against defeat.  The A-bombs, horrible as they were, ended
the war immediately, but the total casualties from both bombs was far
less than the anticipated Allied losses if the war  continued as it
had been going.

For the Greatest Generation, those A-bombs were a God-send, and they
didn't feel guilty about their use.

David Morris

On 10/11/07, Henry <scuffling at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> All deaths, particularly against randomly targeted civilians, e.g. the rockets and... oh, yeah, the camps!, caused by the Nazis/Axis in support of their pure purposes of the final solution and admitted goal of a world-wide dictatorship, were too many, and are incomparable to the deaths, even thousands more than necessary,  wrought by the Americans/Allies in their however impurely purposed fight against them.  That's what I believe, and FWIW, I don't think that my readings of TRP in general, and GR in particular, lead me to believe that TRP thinks otherwise, but your mileage may vary, particularly if you are so deconstructioanal as to suggest that intent cannot be known, and is therefore irrelevant.
>