Why World War II ended with Mushroom Clouds (tags)
"Truman himself, however, hypocritically declared at the time that the purpose of the two nuclear bombardments had been “to bring the boys home,” that is, to quickly finish the war without any further major loss of life on the American side. This explanation was uncritically broadcast in the American media and it developed into a myth eagerly propagated by the majority of historians and media in the USA and throughout the “Western” world. That myth, which, incidentally, also serves to justify potential future nuclear strikes on targets such as Iran and North Korea, is still very much alive - just check your mainstream newspaper on August 6 and 9!" "These conditions mean that we are back to an August 1945 scenario. However, the consequences of a U.S./Israel atomic attack on Iran will constitute the greatest crime in human history. To destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities will require the use of multiple nuclear weapons of various types delivered in diverse ways. The U.S./Israel will be guilty in real time of the very actions they claim to be defending the world from. The flow of oil from multiple regions of the world be at risk to say the least. Millions could die. World opinion might be cemented against us for a hundred years."
Drones: A slam-dunk weapons system or our ticket to hell? (tags)
"Whatever the short-term gains from introducing drone warfare in these past years, we are now locked into the 24/7 assassination trade - with the US's own set of non-suicide bombers on the job into eternity. This may pass for sanity in Washington, but it's surely helping to pave the road to hell. Haven't any of these folks ever seen a sci-fi film? Are none of them Terminator fans? Are they sure they want to open the way to unlimited robot war, keeping in mind that, if this is the latest game in town, it won't remain mainly an American one for long. And just wait until the first Iranian drone takes out the first Balochi guerrilla supported by American funds somewhere in Pakistan. Then let's see just what we think about the right of any nation to summarily execute its enemies - and anyone else in the vicinity - by drone. Is this actually what we Americans want to be known for? And if we let this happen, and General Atomics is working double or triple shifts to turn out ever more, ever-newer generations of robot warriors, while the nation suffers 10.2% unemployment, who exactly will think about shutting them down?