Hiroshima Mon Amour

It seems to me this documentary should be shown in Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan. We can be virtually certain it won't be. I can imagine that the film makes no mention of why the bombs were dropped in the first place, and of how these weapons would serve as an effective deterrent for so many years. The conclusions drawn were likely faulty as well: (Shout it from the mountain top!) America = evil. Eternal shame on evil America for dropping the bomb; for its audacity to wrest victory from the jaws of defeat!

I'm sure, this will also be the lesson liberally taught in our schools. What is 'victory'? (No longer listed in the dictionary; must be archaic or banned terminology.) And a whole new generation will clamor for us to disarm and atone for daring to win; heroes – men who had fought honorably for what they believed was right - forgotten and besmirched, their holy graves violated.

Meanwhile, only the bad actors will be allowed to keep their bombs; those who won't listen to reason or give in to regret; those whose intent it is to destroy us (as well as themselves). In their profound suicidal ignorance, they will not hesitate to loose nuclear mayhem and they will make themselves into heroes - not for dropping the bomb; only to threaten us with it - turning us into mindless pink begging poodles – for the duration. “Arbeit Macht Frei”.

After the bombs drop (on us) every argument is moot. Our choking guilt will thankfully dissipate. There will no longer be any cause to offer regret, tell stories, and make movies telling how bad we were – like braggadocios gang members after a bloody Chicago-style car jacking.

I don’t buy it!

We Won, They Lost

Obama has the facts alright - the facts he wants (us) to believe. In order for ideologies to survive, they need to be supported - if not with facts, then with lies. To our president, the only evil that has ever existed in this world is us. It is we who rape and pillage the planet; it is we who drop bombs and make war; it is we who live off the exploitation of the world's poor.

And we ourselves have gone along with it, happily spitting on the success and prosperity our forefathers have wrought, glibly casting their effort and sacrifice in the same light as our own sloth; ennui; nausea and nihilism. Therefore, it becomes possible for us to say that the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took little thought – like deciding to have an abortion or taking the garbage out.

Above all, it highlights the utter and profound disdain these people have for the nation that’s given them all she had to give – even the platform from which to ridicule her. I am not surprised that with new display of our leaders soiling themselves publicly on the global stage, our people’s outrage grows. It will reach a point where not even the state-sponsored media will be able to air-brush it away.

By the way, I think it is wrong to attempt to justify any war action in terms of soldiers lost as opposed to the soldiers that might have been lost. It’s the same algebra that Obama uses to justify copious spending in order to justify jobs ’saved’. What matters in war is WINNING, and only that.

There are always those who will contrive a rhetoric to blame America first for anything and everything. They represent the squeaky wheel that should at worst be no more than tiresome. The point is, WE WON/they lost. We have nothing to be ashamed of. When winning becomes the source of one’s shame, a civilization lapses into irrelevance.