Reply #7: Congratulations for being one of the few DUers to realize [View All]

[DivinBreuvage]

that 62 years is not ancient history. But I don't think any intelligent person in the US or elsewhere who is not being disingenuous or paranoid looks seriously at the decisions of the Truman administration as any kind of indicator of contemporary American policy. In fact your argument is sadly ironic, since our continued refinement of nuclear weapons which you so deplore is urged in part by old cold warriors who point to what the Soviets were doing 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago and conclude that the Russians are still aggressive and expansionist and that we still have to be ready for whatever dirty tricks they're liable to pull in pursuit of their avowed intention to bury us (which by the way was made well after we had dropped the bomb).

> It's not a game. It's an issue of how we are viewed by the rest of the world.

And yet I suspect it's a game for you too. If you're being candid with yourself I doubt you truly believe that you've uttered some startling new idea that hasn't already been expressed a hundred million times. I doubt you seriously believe you're going to change anything with your posts here, preaching to the choir in the DU echo chamber. So why did you bother to post this at all? To make yourself feel good? (I realize you can turn this question back at me too, and I'll answer it candidly: the reason I posted is because I'm a cranky old miserable bitch, and I read your post and it just happened to rub me the wrong way, even though I understand what you're trying to say and essentially agree with you).

But I would like to know, in all seriousness, how far back you think it is appropriate to draw the line when judging nations. Do we stop at the US dropping the bomb? Can we go back to the Great Depression? The Roaring Twenties? World War I? The French Revolution? I am not being flippant. When do you think we get far enough back into the past that a nation ceases to be liable for the sins of its government?

Thank you for the information on the biological weapons during the Korean war. I was not aware of it and I will investigate it further. Again, though, the example is almost 60 years old.

And, shame on you -- Amherst was a British officer operating during the Seven Years' War. The United States didn't even exist when he pulled that stunt.