War
PRE-NOTE: Take a moment: There are three comments to the Tariff post, here. Yesterday I did a brief post on three items, here. Last week, Fred sent along a forward from a friend about Ukraine and Russia weapons. The friends comment to Fred and by extension to us: “long, worth reading, worrisome“.
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This week is the 80th commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 6 and 9.
Longtime great friend, Peter, from New Hampshire, weighed in after the recent post about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (That post, with details of scheduled events is here. That post is largely about Twin Cities events, but check out what might be said or happening in your own local area.)
My local PBS station has at least three related programs: Tuesday Aug 5 8p.m. Channel 2 American Experience “Victory in the Pacific”; 11 p.m.; repeated Thursday Channel 17. 11 p.m August 5 Channel 2, “Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from WWII”. I was five years old when WWII ended, and of course all of my life mentors were directly a part of the history of this country from the Great Depression to Pearl Harbor, thru WWII and Korea and the ensuing Cold War. Uncle George Busch was Lieutenant on a destroyer in the Pacific 1943 through the end of the war; his neighbor and first cousin from the next farm over, Marine Captain August Berning, was in the midst of the action on Okinawa, and other island conflicts. (See letter from August to George Aug 10 1945 here.)
I’m a Vet and my preference is peace, but I also recognize that this is a terribly difficult question, and with each generation becoming more complicated, such as weapons of war. My first post on Drones was at this space on May 12, 2009, 16 years ago. You can read it here. As with anything I write, it is my personal opinion at a particular point in time. I did something on the topic of drones, my word search indicates, 20 other times since.
Peter’s comment speaks for itself, and it follows:
VFP is also supporting the Gaza flotilla, which includes Ann Wright, and Greta Thunberg among other wonderful leaders.
My Vets for Peace working group has been very active on this, as our focus is uranium weapons (here) and the terrible suppression of the real jeopardy we’re in.
Peter’s Dad protesting the Vietnam War, Philadelphia area
Given how the battle foo Okinawa had just confirmed again how difficult and bloody an invasion would be and how many Allied casualties there would likely be given how fortified was Kyushu where the invasion would likely be made and other circumstances at that time, Truman’s decision to drop those two bombs on Japan was very clearly the correct albeit very difficult decision to make. People who 80-years later who criticize that decision so many decades later do not understand or do not want to understand the context in the times in which it had to be made. No apologies necessary what-so-ever are necessary.