America is still the only country in the history of the world to have used nuclear bombs in a war; on August 6 and 9 atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing 80,000 and 40,000 civilians respectively, and tens of thousands more afterwards due to radiation fallout.
source: Picryl
This post isn't just about the reasons behind those specific bombings, although the official narrative, that they were to motivate Japan to finally surrender and thereby end the Second World War, is somewhat suspicious and disputed because at that time Japan was already soundly defeated in a military sense; please watch the below linked video for a deep dive into the run up to and reasoning behind the dropping of those infamous bombs that motivated their designer, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, to utter the famous words "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
What I would like to briefly discuss in this post however is the reasoning behind attacks on innocent civilian centers in general during warfare. At the end you might be a little bit more suspicious when you hear news about the "accidental" hitting of innocent civilians in these times of remotely and A.I. controlled bombs and drones. You see, deliberately targeting innocent civilians is a longstanding and widely used military tradition and strategy. To wage war is to eliminate all moral and humanistic considerations, and this goes for all kinds of war, the military kind, but also the capitalist economic and political kind. With that in mind, it bears reminding that you, dear reader, are the target in that everlasting class-warfare between your class and that of your true rulers, the plutocrats and the oligarchs who sit on top of the capitalist pyramid. Just keep that in mind when next you wonder why the American political and economic leadership from both sides fail to agree upon the next stimulus package, even when 3000 Americans lose their lifes to covid-19 on a daily basis, and the day after Christmas many millions face eviction and will lose their temporary unemployment benefits...
The intentional targeting of enemy cities with aerial bombing raids is called "strategic bombing". This strategy is designed to destroy a country's ability to wage war by demoralizing civilians and targeting features of an enemy's infrastructure - such as factories, railways, and refineries - that are essential for the production and supply of war materials. What's interesting about this is how the labeling changes with the perspective; when we do it to them it's called "strategic bombing", but when they do it to us it's called "terror bombing". Language and words are still some of the mightiest weapons used in any war; remember that proverb with the pen and the sword. Nowadays this intentional propagandistic labeling of war activities goes even further; when we intentionally target hospitals, schools and food factories in the so called "war on terrorism", our war propaganda turns the motivation around and accuses the terrorists of using those facilities as "human shields"...
The reasoning behind and the justification of the targeting of civilians, apart from the demoralization argument, does something like this: why target mobile and hard to hit machines of war, when you can easily fly over them and bomb the factories that produce those machines? And when we're at it, those factories are manned and operated by the workers who live in nearby cities, so why not bomb those as well? And the hospitals where they are healed when sick or injured, and the schools that train them, the farms and factories that feed them... And so on and so forth. Ultimately everything in the country is somehow connected to the soldiers and machines that oppose our forces. Taking this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion: there are no innocent civilians, and therefore we are innocent of slaughtering "innocent" men, women and children. This is in stark contrast with the words of president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died on April 12 1945, months before his successor Harry S. Truman gave permission to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
“The ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centers of population during the course of hostilities which have raged in various quarters of the earth during the past few years, which has resulted in the maiming and in the death of thousands of defenseless men, women and children, has sickened the hearts of every civilized man and woman, and has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity.
If resort is had to this form of inhuman barbarism during the period of the tragic conflagration with which the world is now confronted, hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings who are not even remotely participating in hostilities, will lose their lives. I am therefore addressing this appeal to the Soviet Government, as I have to governments which have been engaged in general hostilities, publicly to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event and under no circumstances, undertake the bombardment from the air of civilian populations or of unfortified cities upon the understanding that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all of their opponents. I request an immediate reply. Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
source: The Office of the Historian
This is from a 1939 telegram, an exact copy of which was also sent to the Minister of Finland. I'm not saying that if Roosevelt would have still been alive in August that year the bombs wouldn't have been dropped; we now know that the President isn't the one calling the shots, not even "strong man" Donald Trump has been able to withstand the forces of "the swamp", the "deep state", the "shadow government" or however you like to label the financial and economic forces by which we are ultimately ruled. He is just another pawn in the game of hegemony played in favor of the class he belongs to, and far from the savior his followers like to see in him. The ruthlessness described in Roosevelt's telegram and apparent in the military reasoning behind killing innocents is simply part and parcel of the capitalist paradigm, which is why ruthless sociopaths usually come floating on top. Anyway, please watch the video if you have the time to spare; it's more than two hours long, but afterwards you'll have a good understanding of the reasons behind the most ruthless act of war in human history, as well as the real reasons behind indiscriminate bombing of cities as admitted by several key actors in the Second World War. This video will undoubtedly shatter some of the preconceived notions about this and other wars and the morale, or lack thereof, behind them; in my opinion that's a good thing though, as it's becoming more and more important to see through all the lies we're fed each and every day.
Dropping the Bomb: Hiroshima & Nagasaki
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