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Turning back from nuclear brink

Aug. 6 and 9 are days of remembrance. On those days in 1945, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 civilians. Those two days changed the world forever. We now know the face of annihilation...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bangordailynews.com/2019/08/08/opinion/contributors/us-must-turn-back-from-nuclear-brink/

Comments

Anonymous said…
Too much is made of this, given the scope of death and destruction in WWII. The invasion of Japanese territory by the Soviet Union was the deciding factor in the Japanese ending the war, not the atomic bomb attacks.
Anonymous said…

I agree with this person 100% percent. The only problem is that is proposal would save very little money.

I agree that the president should not have the authority to launch weapons. The question is who should have that authority and how much time would it take to act especially in a case where you may have an hour or less.

I agree that we should never strike first even it means we would save lives and prevent far more causalities or escalation.

I agree that we should take NW off hair trigger alerts. Now some of you may be saying that they
are not currently on "hair trigger alerts" but that depends on your definition of hair trigger.
I can imagine cases where they would need to be used rather rapidly so you would have to ask yourself how fast could you get one ready, now a hair-trigger on gun usually means
less than a second, so maybe the guy has a point.

I agree that we should pursue verifiable arms control agreements. Again some of you may say we
already do this but it still sounds good to say it. This must be a very wise man to make such a suggestion.

I however strongly disagree with " People in Maine share the ethic of frugality." This paints
Maine has a monolithic culture with a complete lack of diversity. Maine is very diverse in opinions, ethnicity, ideas, cultures and religions. This is showing the writers privilege in that he speaks for all people of Maine, he does not.

"A recent poll from ReThink Media found that 87 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans believe that we should spend only what we need to maintain a nuclear arsenal able to demonstrate credible strength and deter attcks. That is because we all know that the threats of today are different than those of yesterday. Cybrattacks, climate disruption and terrorism need different and more thoughtful approaches."

Oh I agree 100%, one may ask why the threats of today are different than yesterday which some could say is because the United States has strong NW arsenal. But hey lets disarm and
the only problems we than have to worry about are cyberattacks, climate and terrorism and all those old problems will never arise again.

"On those days in 1945, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 civilians. Those two days changed the world forever. We now know the face of annihilation."

Correct, if we had never used the bombs those 200,000 civilians would have lived...well at least long enough for them to die in a fire bomb raid like Tokyo. If the bombs had never been created than the last 75 years would have been nothing but world peace and love on a global scale.

Anonymous said…
8/18/2019 11:23 AM

You are obviously too young to have lived through WWII. And your knowledge of history is certainly deficient. Fighting a war is not a horrible idea if you have been attacked and stand a good chance of losing and being occupied by the enemy, as the US did in WWII. How many US soldiers, airmen, and sailors would have been killed if we had attacked Japan conventionally instead of dropping the atomic bombs, and had to fight to conclusion? You have no idea what you're talking about but your rainbow vision of the world is so cute.
Anonymous said…
"8/18/2019 5:23 PM"

Dude, chill it was sarcasm. I agree with you.

"8/18/2019 10:48 AM"

You have a point that it could have been the Soviet Union that was they key to the Japan's surrender. However (1) It could have been a
combination of the Russians and the bomb. The Japanese where very shocked by the bomb and it certainly did influence their opinion and there is plenty of evidence of this, so add the Russian invasion and they knew it was over. I personally don't think the Russian invasion alone would have stopped the war but who knows. (2) The US had no idea if Japan would have surrendered with only a Russian invasion or more fire bombings. (3) The last one is more controversial, the US needed to show the rest of the world including the Russians just what a bomb could do, hence since the Japanese bombings no one has used them in a conflict. Suppose Japan had surrendered before the bombs where used, it would have just been matter time before the US or Russia used them in a real conflict.

The point is that use of the two bombs probably did save many lives and may have even deterred future wars.
Anonymous said…
"Suppose Japan had surrendered before the bombs where used, it would have just been matter time before the US or Russia used them in a real conflict."

8/19/2019 7:05 AM

I assume you mean by "real conflict" a nuclear conflict. But I assure you, those who were about to die in the invasion of Japan thought they were in a "real conflict."
Anonymous said…


There is going to be a coming crisis, the next recession is going to spell the end of the capitalism, at the point the world will have to choose between socialism and barbarism, these are the ONLY two choices. Trump is the last capitalist president and it can only go one of two ways in 2020, so think about this choice when we have nuclear weapons. It could really be annihilation. We are at not only the most precarious moment in US history, but in world history, this is the ultimate battle between good and evil, right and wrong, so pick the right side.
Anonymous said…
8/19/2019 6:10 PM

Are you, perchance, channeling John of Patmos? Should we open our hymnals now? Enquiring minds want to know.
Anonymous said…
8/19/2019 6:10 PM is just spewing his usual apocalyptic garbage. He won't go away if you ignore him but you'll feel better about yourself.

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