|
Reading the thread about the question of whether the atom bomb was needed in Japan to result in Japan's surrender, brought up this issue for me again. Because I think the argument that the bomb was necessary is a sham, in a similar way to this:
There is a bumper sticker and a sign the "protest warriors" (some "conservative" elitist snobs) have brought to protests. In small print it says something like:
"Except for ending fascism, ending slavery and ..."
Then in big letters:
"War has never solved anything"
The problem with this is that it is based on bogus assumptions. If you make the sign not sarcastic it reads:
War has solved something a few times, like ending fascism etc.
So, what is being argued? You should go to war because it worked sometimes? It's like: you should jump out of an airplane, because there have been cases where people haven't died from the fall.
Aside from that, the 2 sides of the argument are certainty vs. speculation.
It is "certain" that dropping an atom bomb on Hiroshima killed a bunch of people.
It is speculation that Japan would not have surrendered unless the bombs had been dropped.
Similarly, it's certain that a bunch of Germans were killed in WW2. It's speculation that Hitler could not have been defeated without bombing Germany.
Or more generally, it is certain that bombing people results in death, terror and mutilation. It is speculation that bombing people is needed to minimize a tragedy.
|