Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Don't cry for Hiroshima

So, 62 years ago, Hiroshima went up in smoke, and thousands of her citizens too, in the world's first use of a nuclear weapon against a civilian population.

That's supposed to be a bad thing. Like, I'm supposed to feel sad about it or something. But I don't. You know why? Because of the Rape of Nanking. The Bataan Death March. The forced prostitution of women in conquered populations. Military attacks upon every single one of their neighbors except the Soviet Union, generally without provocation or any justification other than a desire for empire and conquest.

What you sow, thus shalt thou reap. If you kill hundreds of thousands of people, do not expect sympathy from me. A government serves only with the consent of its people, for if a people do not consent, if a people refuse to work and pay taxes and enforce the rulings of the government, the government falls. Sympathy when such a people receive in kind what they have sown elsewhere is not in my nature.

What that says about my opinion of my own government and my own people... I shall not go there.

-- Badtux the Bloody-minded Penguin

Labels: history, war

Posted by: BadTux / 8/06/2007 11:11:00 PM

Comments:

the battle for okinawa, where the japanesse showed their willingness to engage in hopeless, yet vicious, defensive action. including nighttime banzai charges, kamikaze air raids (although they were beginning to run out of aircraft and even rudimentally trained pilots for this) had forced both the army and the navy into a realization that a landing, and invasion occupation of the japanese home islands, even if successful would be a bloodbath of unimaginable proportions. and, while they hadn't attacked the soviets during the declared period of that war, they had a long history of conflict with them. the russians were still holding a grudge from 1908.
# posted by The Minstrel Boy : 7/8/07 7:52 AM

There is some argument over whether Japan would have surrendered anyhow after the destruction of their mainland army by the invading Soviets, which left them nothing except their islands and no significant military forces or equipment left. But in my opinion that argument is irrelevant. I am not aware of any widespread Japanese resistance to the military government of Japan and its acts during the 1930's and early 40's. Rather, the Japanese people willingly followed the military government off the cliff. They lost any claim to moral superiority in that act.

Of course, they are not the only civilian population that has ever followed their government off the moral cliff. Hmm, Iraq-nam, anybody? But at least you had voices here in the U.S. willing to speak up against the war before and during its occurance. While I may have disdain for the sheeple as a whole, who simply followed their leaders off the cliff, those voices get my respect. And yes I was one of those voices, so there is a bit of a self-congratulatory note to that statement. So what. I was right. The sheeple who went baa baa baa off the moral cliff were wrong. I get no joy from that statement, since those who are dead because of that moral atrocity of invading and occupying a nation that had never attacked us and posed no threat to our nation are still dead.

- Badtux the Brutal Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 7/8/07 8:45 AM

said very nicely - if i do say so mr penguin - what we need to do is outlaw war....sigh
# posted by azgoddess : 7/8/07 9:34 AM

I've said for some time if all the citizenry would band together and not pay their taxes...they'd get some attention. But, sadly...they want the returned money that they'll receive...so it won't happen. It's the poorer people that look forward to the check coming.
# posted by sumo : 7/8/07 11:03 AM

just ask the Chinese people what they think of the Japanese activities during the war...ask the survivors of the Bataan Death March...I may be the only one old enough to remember the war...my dad was in the Army...no sleep lost for dropping the big one...none at all
# posted by moderate : 7/8/07 11:37 AM

It is worthy to note that even with the proliferation of nuclear weapons among the major industrial nations (thousands of warheads and multiple delivery systems), they have never been used since Hiroshima and Nagasaki against military or civilian targets. Perhaps it was necessary to demonstrate their horrific power in order to prevent their further usage.
# posted by TheCultureGhost : 7/8/07 10:12 PM

Honor Roll

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Liberated Iraqis

Children celebrate liberation of parents
More pics of children celebrating
Liberated baby
Liberated women and children
More liberation, yessiree
More to follow, after I finish cursing SOB chickenhawks and get my breath back...

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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