Thank you for recognizing here, here, and here, what the front page of BoomanTribune did not.
In the current atmosphere of George Bush’s nuclear threats and an American foriegn policy that is inching us all toward nuclear Armageddon, it saddens me and angers me that the majority of Americans, including those who call themselves progressives have failed, once again, for the most part to recognize the anniversarry of two of history’s foulest war crimes. The exceptionalist murders of 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Except for two obscure references buried within frontpage diaries:
Booman, in this diary
We’re back to that 1940’s brand of moral clarity that allowed us to bomb the hell out of civilians to supposedly break the back of the enemy. Never mind that it didn’t work, how’s this for moral clarity?
and StevenD in this diary,
Why Nukes?
why should that war involve nuclear weapons, however? Because of simple economics and also the desire to once again intimidate potential adversaries. Much as Truman used Hiroshima and Nagasaki to send a message to Stalin, Bush will be tempted to employ nuclear weapons in Iran to send a message to other Islamic countries, and to Russia and China, that we not only have the means to use b=nukes, but that we also have the will to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle.
there’s been nothing regarding the vaporization of civilians in America’s “good war”. And Steven, I love your take on things, but the genie is already out of the bottle. We let it out 61 years ago. Harry Truman may have had the intimidation of future adversaries in mind, but George Bush has the End Times in mind.
One of the most popular fiction series making the rounds these days is the Left Behind series written by Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins. Multiple millions of people are reading these books which fictionalize the end of life as we know it. It used to be that the Church could control people through the fear of eternal damnation. Today it is through fear of the future. The theology is basically this: The Bible is a code book that when rightly interpreted reveals that we are living at the end of history. History is scripted and is about to come to a catastrophic conclusion. The only hope is to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior so that you can be “saved” from the future apocalypse. God will “snatch you up” (Rapture) right before a seven year series of horrible events that will see the rise of Antichrist and the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. There will be world war with most of humanity dying. At that point Jesus will return to restore law and order. This theology of despair “fits” our current culture of powerlessness and fear. From SARS to weapons of mass destruction to the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, to ecological collapse, the whole world seems to be on a “no exit” slide into an end times abyss. The theology of despair is very seductive. It is shaping the spirituality of Christians which provides a strong core from which Bush draws political strength.
While people argue whether or not Norwegians are guilty of complacency, or who is an anti-semite or not, the lessons of what happens when powerful nations with moral certitude behind them decide who is an acceptable casualty and who is not, are staring us in the face……
George Bush has made it clear that all options are on the table, and we should know by now that that moron means what he says.
I tell you what, Ned Lamont might make a good Senator, but he isn’t gonna have shit to say if George follows form and squeezes off a couple of nukes on Iran or even North Korea.
I don’t mean to discount the good work that’s been done here in the past. But right now, when it looks like Bush wants to take us back to the future, a little more attention to history is in order. And a little more attention to what’s at stake for the world, not just democrats or Americans.