X-Message-Number: 18130
Subject: Re:  More Comment on Nukes (by Mike Perry)
Date: Sun,  9 Dec 2001 11:32:24 -0800 (PST)
From:  (Peter C. McCluskey)

  (Matthew S. Malek) writes:
>> Then too, not granting this "foot in the door" to the communist USSR
>> might be viewed as a justifiable policy against this expansionist,
>> totalitarian system.
>
>This statement is _precisely_ why I dislike such intellectualized
>arguments.  It is far too easy to make cruel statements such as these
>without even realizing the inhumanity of the statement. 
>
>You are suggesting that the death of nearly 500,000 Japanese civilians is
>justifiable if it halts _Soviet_ expansion???  

 It seems quite possible to me that a Soviet conquest and prolonged
occupation of Japan would have caused deaths of much more than 500,000
innocent Japanese civilians. What disturbs me about this argument is the
ease with which opportunistic politicians could persuade voters with
similar arguments in cases where that was not true.

  (Mike Perry) writes:
>>One _can_ point to hundreds of thousands of dead Japanese and tens of
>>thousands of dead Koreans as concrete proof of the evil of using the bomb.
>>Any possible "evil" in not using it is hypothetical only.
>
>True enough, but one errs in focusing *only* on the bad consequences that 
>actually happened, without considering whether even worse ones might have 
>followed if another course had been taken. One is forced to consider the 
>hypothetical.

 We should certainly consider hypothetical consequences, but we should doubt
our ability to objectively evaluate them. Few of us will take the time to
carefully research these issues, and we are easily biased by the desire to
share our friend's beliefs.
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter McCluskey          | Free Dmitry Sklyarov! http://www.freesklyarov.org/
http://www.rahul.net/pcm | 

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