We did the right thing IMO.
German collaboration and complicity - The Holocaust Explained German collaboration and complicity – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools
The Germans knew and they collaborated
Not all of them did. Schindler’s list is based on an actual person as an example.
I don’t think I’m going to buy into the idea of collective punishment for whole groups of people. You can, but to me it’s untenable.
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We executed Nazis after the war.
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Rightfully so
As horrific as that loss of life would’ve been, I think the argument often is that soldiers, regardless of what side they’re on, sign up knowing they may need to sacrifice their lives. Civilians have usually not made the same offer.
A lot of soldiers are drafted.
Civilians support the war effort.
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Yeah, but are most? I’m just saying, it’s one thing to ask a soldier to be willing to die, it’s another to ask a civilian. Neither is good, but one comes with the territory.
I’m not interested in assigning blame or judging the U.S. for dropping the atomic bombs, I’m just saying the arguments that more soldiers would’ve died if the war continued isn’t always a convincing reason.
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I am far from a War Crime expert, but I found your statement might be lacking legal standing. As I understand it the first time the Geneva Convention addressed violence against civilians was 1949 which was more about civilians in occupied countries. And it wasn’t until 1977 that attacks against civilians in a war was considered a war crime.
If that is the case, legally, the atomic bombs used against Japan were not war crimes.
I could be completely off base, but I tend to believe the United States would not willfully commit a war crime. Or is that just me wanting the United States to be more honorable than they actually were.
Yes. Honor in war? -that’s a luxury for minds writing checks dead bodies can’t afford.
Don’t forget about the internment camps for Japanese Americans. How legal was that? What happened to all their assets btw? Reparations!
Dropping the bomb was the right call from the perpective of the US. I wonder how many of these “educated” people, especially college kids, calling Israel out for the collateral damage are aware of their hypocrisy.
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Thats what happens war
Can you state the war crime law that was broken? “The greater good” was the ethical value at that time.
How about civilians don’t send soldiers to die if they themselves are completely unwilling to take on any amount of accountability.
I think American laws would apply in this case.
How much control do civilians(I assume we’re talking about normal, everyday citizens here) have over where soldiers go?
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They were Americans.
And since when did “war crimes” become the bar for being “more honorable”?
They elect those who send them. People want democracy without accountability.
Kinda like what may happen
I am hearing that the pentagon is debating on bringing back the draft because of whats going on in the mideast
I can agree with this. My point from the post you quoted was more so that it wasn’t a good thing we did nuking Japan. It was a necessary evil IMO (I mentioned that at the time I’d likely do the same as Truman). I don’t think we should be proud of that moment though.
As a side note, I don’t think it is odd or incorrect to say that a past event was a crime even if it was legal at the time (in this context, discussing morality of a past action). For example (hypothetical), let’s say killing someone by lynching was legal 200 years ago, and I were to say that the people doing the lynching were murderers, it would be weird IMO to disagree with that statement because it was legal at that time.