What the hell is Obama doing in Hiroshima?

[MarAzul]

?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Fucking shit up?

 

[PDXFonz]

Not trying to make things worse

 

[riverman]

I went there twice...what's the big deal? Lots of people go there. I've been to Little Big Horn and the Alamo too. Most of the Civil War sites like Gettysburg as well. My dad visited Germany after the war. Personally honoring the fallen of past wars is commendable to me

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I went there in High School, it was super creepy. I felt so awkward.

 

[riverman]

I went there in High School, it was super creepy. I felt so awkward.

I walked the Giokusendo tunnel where all those Japanese sodiers died in Okinawa..that was a creepy ghost dance..longest tunnel on the planet at the time..I'm sure cartels have matched it from Mexico by now

 

[barfo]

He's surrendering to Emperor Hirohito.

The war is over at last, MarAzul.

I hope Japan rules its new American territories with wisdom and benevolence.

barfo

 

[theprunetang]

I don't see the problem here. What is your particular issue with this action? I'm just curious.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I walked the Giokusendo tunnel where all those Japanese sodiers died in Okinawa..that was a creepy ghost dance..longest tunnel on the planet at the time..I'm sure cartels have matched it from Mexico by now

I think I saw the only homeless person I saw in Japan for the month I was there.

 

[crandc]

Um, you can read a newspaper, can't you? Then find out. Or is it too much strain on the brain to, you know, be informed?

 

[Denny Crane]

Farewell apology tour.

 

[Hobbesarable]

I don't see the problem here. What is your particular issue with this action? I'm just curious.

Let me put it this way. If Obama sneezed Marzy would have a problem with it.

 

[MarAzul]

Not trying to make things worse

Worse than what?

 

[MarAzul]

sneezed

Do you think he went there to sneeze?

 

[MarAzul]

Farewell apology tour.

You are no help! I can't think of another reason.

 

[DaLincolnJones]

Farewell apology tour.

Yep. This is shameful. Another projection of weakness.

 

[MarAzul]

I'm just curious.

So am I. What is his motive? What does he expect to accomplish?

 

[e_blazer]

Barack Obama on Friday became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he called for a "world without nuclear weapons" during his remarks at the city's Peace Memorial Park.

Obama was not expected to apologize for the U.S. action to hasten the end of World War II and he did not during his 20-minute-long remarks.

"Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder the terrible forces unleashed in the not so distant past. We come to mourn the dead ... their souls speak to us and ask us to look inward. To take stock of who we are and what we might become."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/politics/obama-hiroshima-japan/index.html

 

[theprunetang]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/politics/obama-hiroshima-japan/index.html

Reprehensible. Hehe

 

[e_blazer]

Considering that China and Russia are both acting more aggressively, that a lunatic in North Korea has a nuclear arsenal and that mad mullahs in Iran want them, it's probably not a bad thing to remind the world that even with the relatively limited technology available 70 years ago, nuclear weapons make a really devastating bang. I'm never going to be an Obama fan, but this is not a move that I have any squabble with him over. I doubt there's ever going to come a time when we don't have a nuclear arsenal (unless we actually use the damned things and bomb ourselves back to the stone age), but it's a good sentiment to try to reduce the threat of their use.

I say this as a former missile launch officer who's really glad I never had to actually do the devastating part of the job I was trained for.

 

[MarAzul]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/politics/obama-hiroshima-japan/index.html

They say he did not apologize, but to me, he did indeed, in his back handed way, he implied that the the action was immoral.

"Obama said there is a "shared responsibility" to look into the "eye of history" and ask what must be done to prevent another nuclear weapon being used.
He urged that the world make moral progress alongside its remarkable scientific advancements.
"The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well," Obama said. "That is why we come to this place."


What he left unsaid was, it shortened the war and prevented the loss of many more lives.

The US was assembling an invasion force of around three million men, while the Japanese where digging in, giving no hint to any possible ending to the war other than by shear force.

The projected loses of US invader ranged from 500,000 men to 1.5 million. The invasion force was expected to be required to kill 3 to 5 million Japanese,
many crudely armed civilians, while in route to Tokyo.

Dropping the two bombs averted this horrible massacre, trading a very large massacre for a much smaller pair a tradgedies. One would have been enough if the Russians had notified the US of Japans intentions after the first bomb on Hiroshima. Instead the Russians launched their own invasion of Japan, through Manchuria and Korea and taking the Kurl Island between Japan and the Kamchatka peninsula.

Obama mentions nothing about the facts behind the decision, a gutsy decision by one of the best Democratic Presidents in the history of our nation.

Obama left his message in Hiroshima, he implied what he intended and now the real history will be that much harder to tell.

 

[MarAzul]

I say this as a former missile launch officer who's really glad I never had to actually do the devastating part of the job I was trained for

I agree entirely. However your job was most successfully executed resulting in the desired outcome. No apologies will ever be needed.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Farewell apology tour.

Pre-apologizing for Trump in an attempt to keep every country from nuking us.

 

[crandc]

Ah, e_blazer, reality based again!

 

[Denny Crane]

Pre-apologizing for Trump in an attempt to keep every country from nuking us.

True. But Obama started his presidency with an apology tour and now he's ending it the same way!

 

[Stevenson]

Well, it can't be that he was going there to promote peace and highlight the need for increased nuclear disarmament in this crazy, mixed up world.

If Obama did it, it must be bad.

 

[Denny Crane]

Well, it can't be that he was going there to promote peace and highlight the need for increased nuclear disarmament in this crazy, mixed up world.

If Obama did it, it must be bad.

Credit where credit is due. I think it's a great thing he's doing. It didn't cost the taxpayers but a few tens of $millions for his trip.

 

[MarAzul]

Ha! I have to chuckle just a little over what I wrote above. It would be completely ridiculous to expect Obama to think is terms of quantitative analysis,
he thinks in terms of feeling almost entirely, especially how others will feel about his actions.

No, this is not a racial judgment, it is a character type issue.

 

[MarAzul]

It didn't cost the taxpayers but a few tens of $millions for his trip.

Oh geez! I think his actions could end up costing us hugely. Perhaps not all in dollars.

 

[barfo]

Ha! I have to chuckle just a little over what I wrote above. It would be completely ridiculous to expect Obama to think is terms of quantitative analysis,
he thinks in terms of feeling almost entirely, especially how others will feel about his actions.

No, this is not a racial judgment, it is a character type issue.

I would gently suggest that perhaps it could be you who is having the 'feelings' here, rather than rational analysis.

Your lens appears to be such that no matter what Obama says or does, it will be wrong.

"They say he did not apologize, but to me, he did indeed"

barfo