War is bad.
In a Utopian society war would not exist and we would all live at peace with each other. Unfortunately, we do not live in an Utopian society. We never will. In fact, being involved in war is necessary at times. The American Revolution, World War 1 and World War 2 are just a few examples.
But there are those that sit on their moral high horse and condemn those who have/had to make very tough decisions on how to keep the American people safe. These decisions are not always the right or the most popular ones, but they have to be made.
Jon Stewart’s answer in the following video is naive and just plain ignorant to the realities that the Allies were facing when fighting Japan. As mentioned in the video, it is easy to spout off one’s (almost Holier than Thou) views on an issue that happened 64 years ago if you do not truly understand and see the whole picture. Mr. Stewart even paused when giving his answer, yet still came to the conclusion that Truman is a war criminal for using atomic bombs on Japan.
I shall now let the video speak for itself.
Jon Stewart, War Criminals & The True Story of the Atomic Bombs
It may be difficult to watch, but please stick with it. If you hold views similar to Jon Stewart regarding our use of atomic weapons during WW2, I hope this video gives you a better understanding of the brutal realities of the War we were fighting. Perhaps it will change your view on current and future wars that we will fight.
Travis Clay
I’m a big Daily Show fan, and I saw the Jon Stewart clip. I think he said that because he was in an argument and let his emotion overtake his rationality. Note that he did recant and apologize.
That being said, I don’t think one can really argue either side of this question. One side says that anyone who kills hundreds of thousands of non-combatants is definitely a war criminal. The other side says that dropping those bombs saved a million lives.
I don’t know. I don’t think we can say with certainty that Truman saved lives by dropping those bombs… but he did end the war. I can’t help but say… what would Jesus do? Would Jesus approve of killing half a million non-combatants… including children… for that matter, why would God allow all those children to suffer and/or die. I don’t think I can accept that as “right.”
Currently, we are supposed to be fighting three fronts to the same war. We’re supposed to fighting the war on terror at home, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, but the war in Iraq turned out to have little to do with terrorism or Saddam having weapons of mass destruction. We also fought a war in Vietnam that had little to do with preserving our freedom (as it was sold to us).
Did the United States really even NEED to get involved in WWI? I think not. Many, if not most of the wars that are fought, shouldn’t have been fought at all. Should we have fought the Revolutionary War? Maybe. Should we have fought the Civil War? From the Union’s point of view… YES! The Confederacy should never have risen up. Should someone have stopped us from exterminating the American Indians? YES! Someone should have kicked our ass.
There are very few wars in history that I see as “Noble.” The Union fought a noble fight against the Confederacy. Hitler definitely had to be stopped. We had to fight in Afghanistan to stop Al Quaida and the Taliban… other than those… I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find truly “Noble” acts of war.
Jeff