Only Military Leaders and Politicians Talk About “Winning Wars”
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart
First and foremost, the people of any country involved in a
military conflict never “win a war.” Only military leaders and politicians
discuss winning wars, and they, and only they profit from the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
What has never been discussed since WWII is the fact that
America’s government nor its military leaders have “won” a single war. Our
military left in disgrace from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and eventually,
Afghanistan. However, the people living in those countries, and of their
adversary, the United States of America, lost brothers, sisters, sons,
daughters, fathers, husbands, and wives. People who can never be replaced.
Being an original “baby boomer,” I often think of the tens
of thousands of lives taken by the decision of one man in August of 1945. On
August 6 and August 9, atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. A total of approximately 120,000 Japanese citizens were killed
immediately, and tens of thousands more lost their lives later from severe
injuries and radiation poisoning. The President signing the order to murder
innocent men, women, and children was Harry S. Truman. U.S. military leaders
encouraged the use of these horrific weapons of mass destruction, and pacifists
such as me will never understand or forgive their decision.
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are
punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
Voltaire.
I understand that I live in the most warlike nation in
history. It is simply another reason why America has never been a “great
nation.” Other reasons include the continuation of racism, bigotry, and
misogyny. I was proud that our nation was moving forward until the illegitimate
election of Donald Trump in 2016. The well-known coward moved our nation
backwards into its darkest days protecting racists, bigots, and misogynists,
and announced: “I love war, including nuclear war.” Although he qualified himself
for rremoval based on the 25th Amendment, his cowardly party refused
to do the right thing.
I leave you with famous lyrics by Edwin Starr in 1970: “War,
what is it good for? Absolutely nothin.”
Op-ed by James Turnage
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Source: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
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