In an ideal world, things would be different. It is possible to imagine an ideal world in some limited, very strictly defined way. You can build intricate computer models for forecasting weather, economics, or elections. They may be better than a wild guess by a modest percentage, but they are still going to fail forty percent of the time. We cannot cover all the bases, get all the inputs, all the factors.
Ideology isn't the same as having principles. Principles guide us in the real world. We make real world choices based on our beliefs about what is right and wrong. Ideology deals with that model world of imagination where there is no poverty, disease, or suffering, where earthquakes can be predicted, and hurricanes and tornadoes can be prevented. To be principled is to know how to react when the inevitable disaster strikes, how to deal with financial reversals, and so on.
The president of American black people visited Hiroshima, Japan where the first nuclear weapon was used in war. While he did not go so far as to say we were wrong, he did say that using a nuclear weapon was "evil". I suppose the Bataan Death March was the first biggest loser competition for overweight American soldiers. What does the HKB think Pearl Harbor was? What was the murder of millions of innocent people by communists in China and the USSR? Again, is it worse to kill non-combatants with nuclear weapons than with a machete or bullet to the back of the head?
Humans do bad things to one another. We are fallen, and we can't get up without the Cross. Long before we had nuclear weapons, we killed one another with rocks, sticks, and fire. In theory, our nuclear arsenals could destroy the human race. But perhaps seeing the awful, destructive power of a nuclear weapon has convinced us that we should never use them. Perhaps those who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not perish in vain. Millions more lives may have been saved by those horrific fireballs that roared out from ground zero.
As with guns, ideologues like the HKB do not place the blame in the right place. No tool is evil. An ICBM has no will and cannot be evil any more than it can be good. In this case, the bombs dropped on Japan served the same function as the sword or a gun in the hand of one defending the innocent. Faced with a recalcitrant and intractable enemy, America sought a way to change the mindset of the Japanese, to show them that defeat was inevitable and that further resistance would result in the soil of Japan being saturated with the blood of millions of Japanese as well as hundreds of thousands of American soldiers.
The evil was the stubbornness and pride of the Japanese leadership and people.
I was brought up despising Harry Truman, but even I admit that, in this particular case, Truman made the right call. He was still in touch with reality. Obama is not.
Ideology isn't the same as having principles. Principles guide us in the real world. We make real world choices based on our beliefs about what is right and wrong. Ideology deals with that model world of imagination where there is no poverty, disease, or suffering, where earthquakes can be predicted, and hurricanes and tornadoes can be prevented. To be principled is to know how to react when the inevitable disaster strikes, how to deal with financial reversals, and so on.
The president of American black people visited Hiroshima, Japan where the first nuclear weapon was used in war. While he did not go so far as to say we were wrong, he did say that using a nuclear weapon was "evil". I suppose the Bataan Death March was the first biggest loser competition for overweight American soldiers. What does the HKB think Pearl Harbor was? What was the murder of millions of innocent people by communists in China and the USSR? Again, is it worse to kill non-combatants with nuclear weapons than with a machete or bullet to the back of the head?
Humans do bad things to one another. We are fallen, and we can't get up without the Cross. Long before we had nuclear weapons, we killed one another with rocks, sticks, and fire. In theory, our nuclear arsenals could destroy the human race. But perhaps seeing the awful, destructive power of a nuclear weapon has convinced us that we should never use them. Perhaps those who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not perish in vain. Millions more lives may have been saved by those horrific fireballs that roared out from ground zero.
As with guns, ideologues like the HKB do not place the blame in the right place. No tool is evil. An ICBM has no will and cannot be evil any more than it can be good. In this case, the bombs dropped on Japan served the same function as the sword or a gun in the hand of one defending the innocent. Faced with a recalcitrant and intractable enemy, America sought a way to change the mindset of the Japanese, to show them that defeat was inevitable and that further resistance would result in the soil of Japan being saturated with the blood of millions of Japanese as well as hundreds of thousands of American soldiers.
The evil was the stubbornness and pride of the Japanese leadership and people.
I was brought up despising Harry Truman, but even I admit that, in this particular case, Truman made the right call. He was still in touch with reality. Obama is not.
