This Pearl Harbor Day

[ER]

Anyone else with me on letting this thread and the one about Putin dry up and die before we are all crushed under the weight of armchair know it all-ism?

[LilCerberus]

Anyone else with me on letting this thread and the one about Putin dry up and die before we are all crushed under the weight of armchair know it all-ism?

Yes.
And I've already met a guy who wrote a book about how Hitler was copying Roosevelt, which is why I didn't bring it up....

[lester1/2jr]

I don't think people with military experience have any more or less understanding of the geopolitical implications of foreign policy decisions.

[Alex]

Of course not. We only live and die by those decisions. Why would we learn any greater understanding of them than anyone else? All that time and effort they put into giving us additional information the general public doesn't get to see, is totally wasted. That part of the job interview, where you get quizzed on a variety of world events at random and have to answer, dump that s**t. The selection boards where you have to write a degree-level paper on a randomly chosen geopolitical event and then defend it with only a few week's prep? No need for that when the average person understands just as much as you. Might as well just hand out those rank tabs in a cereal box.

[ER]

I don't think people with military experience have any more or less understanding of the geopolitical implications of foreign policy decisions.

Completely disagree.

[lester1/2jr]

it's a subjective thing. I don't now anything about how say, the war in Iraq worked, but I know it was not a good idea.

[ER]

I guess it shouldn't surprise me but still somehow does, that a post meant to express sympathy for the suffering of innocent people on the other side during a war fought eighty years ago has generated controversy.

[ralfy]

I think the problem isn't know-it-all-ism but a blinkered view of history. Hence, the mistaken belief that the Japanese were generally innocent (i.e., did not support the war), were merely forced by a warmongering government, that the latter was warmongering for no reason at all, etc.

The reality is that they backed the Emperor even outside a military government and were willing to die for him and for their country, and that they accepted surrender only because he ordered them to do so, and that to this day many of them know little about the war in contrast to those who were victimized by it.

But does that mean that the Japanese were merely evil, and that allies were good? Yes, but only if one subscribes to the reductive view that there's only good and evil, and we're good while they're evil. That's why in contrast to that, the same U.S. did not take punitive action on the Emperor, and supported Japan to develop its economy. Forgiveness of Japan took place a lot earlier than most imagine, while Japanese are barely taught about atrocities committed during the war.

The same blinkered view can be seen in light of views of the attack on Iraq. It's similar to Clinton's view of Qaddafi: we came, we saw, he died.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

or Bush's jokes about WMDs. Nope, no weapons over there!

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

Mostly silence, though, when it comes to explaining how Saddam maintained power:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/9/4/when-rumsfeld-was-chummy-with-saddam

[ER]

I think the problem isn't know-it-all-ism but a blinkered view of history. Hence, the mistaken belief that the Japanese were generally innocent (i.e., did not support the war), were merely forced by a warmongering government, that the latter was warmongering for no reason at all, etc

Can you show me where anyone here has indicated that outlook? I think you are so determined to tell your self-important opinions and what you think you know, that you seize on anything resembling an excuse, then squeal with delight to have emptied out your thoughts even when nothing justified you giving them. If you think innocent people do not suffer as a result of government's actions (which is what my original post was about) I invite you to rise from your armchair and visit a war-torn country. It might be fatal to your pre-conceived ideas of reality. Been there, done that, it changed me. Try it. It's humbling. In the meantime, just give it a bit of a rest, mate, OK?

[ER]

On second thought, why am I even still reading your posts and replying? Talk to yourself. (Your style would probably be better appreciated somewhere else, and I hope you find it. You're not a jerk, just mildly annoying in your adolescent certainty you know something.)

[lester1/2jr]

bottom line: nagasaki and hiroshima were terrorism: inflicting damage on the population in order to affect the governments policy.

[Alex]

Interesting. In one post you claim it is subjective, and then in the next, you post absolutes.

[ER]

Tell you what, let's all watch Grave of the Fireflies and call this strife-infected thread kaput, d'ya'wanna?

[lester1/2jr]

unless there's another definition of terrorism besides that one?

[Alex]

I guess it isn't subjective then.