Although I am usually revolted far more by the
misinformation and disinformation of the “Right,” who have been and are far
more powerful where it counts, there is plenty on the “Left” as well. Some examples:
1) Revisionist thinking about North Vietnam being
this splendor house of noble characters.
While they may have looked okay compared to their insanely murderous or
corrupt neighbors (China, Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, South Vietnam), both their
motives and their processes were FAR from pure.
And I don’t mean just because they tortured American prisoners of war.
2) Dropping atomic weapons on Japan. While it is a false and covering myth that
they were used to make an invasion unnecessary and “save a million American
lives” (would have been closer to 25,000, and unlikely to be needed since Japan
was on the ropes primarily because of the blockade), the Left’s condemning of atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in absolutist terms is shallowly
considered. Dropping the weapons did
several things, some intended and some unintended (but with benefits): a) Get
Japan, who was reeling from the invasion of Manchuria by the Soviets and the
quick defeat of their best Army, the Kwantung Army, by the Soviets, to
surrender to us first and primarily, not the Soviets. No mean feat, given we had been their primary
enemy and had just committed what outside observers would probably consider
acts of terror (the firebombings). Having Japan surrender to the U.S. was
important for post-war situations and the setup of the Cold War. b) Show that
America both possessed weapons of enormous power and was willing to use them—and
not just once. This had considerable deterrence effect, and not just
immediately. c) Gave a hard shove to developing anti-militarism in Japan, and
helped seed future pacifistic sentiments there, all from the horror and shock. d) Gave the world a truly terrible look at destruction on such a scale and such
a soul-sucking horror, that it never wanted to go down that road. There would be no need to demonstrate (as was
felt necessary in WW1) their general use before combatant nations—even greatly
malevolent ones—forswore their desire to use them again. In that way, the bombings perhaps saved far more
lives and suffering than they cost, and so were “worth” it.
3) Absolutist condemnings of collateral casualties
in the fight against terrorists. While
there is reason to question some tactics, methods, and targeting—especially ones
whose effects end up doing more harm than benefit—and there are insufficient
answers to questions of constitutionality, some collateral casualties are
unavoidable. And one prime reason: terrorists purposely put women and children—often even their own—in harm’s way,
thinking we will hesitate long enough to lose opportunity. Precisely because we want to make this a
useless tactic for them, we strike anyway.
In this way, we show the futility of such “human shield” tactics, and
perhaps save more innocent lives in the future by making such tactics
irrelevant and ineffective.
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