If you're too young to remember the last war fought by the US, this might be an important read. WWII was legally declared by the US Congress, as required by the now defunct Constitution, and the setting for the only detonation of nuclear bombs in the history of human warfare.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are part of some distant past history, and hardly remembered by most Americans. Even fewer understand that these cities were not military targets, annihilated to minimize the fighting capacity of the Japanese in the last months of the war. In fact, these were civilian targets set up to warn the Russians of what they could face in the coming time of 'peace.' The arms race began on two hot, ugly days in August, 1945, when those very terrifying bombs went off.
A commentary at http://tvnewslies.org commemorates the Bombs of August. The closing sentence of this editorial is possibly the most poignant, and most terrifying.
It begins:
In Remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
When the bombs were dropped I was very happy. The war would be over now, they said, and I was very happy. The boys would be coming home very soon they said, and I was very happy. We showed ‘em, they said, and I was very happy. They told us that the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been destroyed, and I was very happy. But in August of 1945 I was only ten years old, and I was very, very happy.
The crew of the B-29 was so young and heroic, and in the photo they also looked very happy. For some reason, I clearly remember the name of the pilot, Paul Tibbets. Of course I remember the name of the plane, the Enola Gay. And oh yes, I remember the name of the bomb. It was called Little Boy. That made me smile.
I was so proud to be an American that day because we had done something so remarkable. They said we were the first. We were Americans. We were powerful. But they didn’t say that Little Boy had killed 66,000 people with its huge fireball that fateful day in August. They didn’t say that Hiroshima was not a military target, but a city filled with men and women and children and animals who had no idea they were about to die so horribly. When you’re ten, they don’t always tell you everything.
The article continues here:
http://tvnewslies.org/...