A new documentary based upon some of the material collected by colleague Charlie Pellegrino for his sweeping narrative, "Last Train from Hiroshima." The strangest detail of the attacks is that more than a few who survived Hirsohima on August 6 then entrained for their relatives, or their work, in Nagasaki; and were bombed a second time on August 9. The whole story is creepy and numbing and astonishing. Sixty-five years later, it still makes little sense. The world was mad in 1945. Whoever survived still cannot explain the madness. More were mass-murdered in the firebombings of Tokyo than died from the atomic weapons. It was industrial murder. The Allies and Axis manufactured corpses. It is as if we are peering into the history and culture of another planet. It is as if it is all make-believe.
It seems to me this documentary should be shown in Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan. We can be virtually certain it won't be. I can imagine that the film makes no mention of why the bombs were dropped in the first place, and of how these weapons would serve as an effective deterrent for so many years. The conclusions drawn were likely faulty as well: (Shout it from the mountain top!) America = evil. Eternal shame on evil America for dropping the bomb; for its audacity to wrest victory from the jaws of defeat!
I'm sure, this will also be the lesson liberally taught in our schools. What is 'victory'? (No longer listed in the dictionary; must be archaic or banned terminology.) And a whole new generation will clamor for us to disarm and atone for daring to win; heroes – men who had fought honorably for what they believed was right - forgotten and besmirched, their holy graves violated.
Meanwhile, only the bad actors will be allowed to keep their bombs; those who won't listen to reason or give in to regret; those whose intent it is to destroy us (as well as themselves). In their profound suicidal ignorance, they will not hesitate to loose nuclear mayhem and they will make themselves into heroes - not for dropping the bomb; only to threaten us with it - turning us into mindless pink begging poodles – for the duration. “Arbeit Macht Frei”.
After the bombs drop (on us) every argument is moot. Our choking guilt will thankfully dissipate. There will no longer be any cause to offer regret, tell stories, and make movies telling how bad we were – like braggadocios gang members after a bloody Chicago-style car jacking.
I don’t buy it!
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
sometimes there are no good choices.
none.
times when only fools hold out hope that
a little more time
a little more effort
a little more thought
a little more magic
will save us from the bitter cup
times when the best of the worst is to save your own kind
times when we forget we are all but one kind
times when doing is evil and not doing is evil
some folks think that morality arises deductively from some general principals.
a kind of euclidean ethics
compelling if only we could find the indubitable axioms
of right and wrong
of good and evil
of virtue and vice
and then when we found them we could simply
show them to everyone and
all would see and
all would agree and
harmony would rule
some think that morality is merely power writing rules
that judging others is presumptuous and ignorant and unsophisticated
that different times and places and people and interests call for different rules
there is an easy paradox here - skeptics judge too
but there is a deeper failure
a student once asked aristotle what could be said to
someone
who rejected all reason, all argument
who insisted on doing as he pleased come what may
aristotle said
"some people just haven't been brought up right."
i think now that morality arises from instances not principles
we come to know that some concrete actions or institutions are wrong.
we make theories of principles to extend those intuitions.
but if the theory contradicts the instances - the paradigm cases - the theory is wrong.
i know slavery is wrong.
i know it always was wrong.
i know it always will be wrong.
that is a touchstone for my moral principles.
there are others.
i want with all my soul to condemn nukes
but hiroshima and nagasaki haunt that desire.
the warehouse full of purple hearts
sometimes there are no good choices.
We have the twelvers in Tehran, who believe that global holocaust is necessary for the resurrection of their religious leader.
Everyone knows they are crazy, everyone knows the risk. If you are too strident you are labeled a Militarist by emotional people in pink.
FDR faced it, Reagan engaged this threat. Carter Ignored it. Nixon tried to negotiate with it. Chamberlain signed agreements with it. Churchill called it what it was. Evil.