But, but, but.... they dropped LEAFLETS!!! (GRAPHIC)

[BigMcLargehuge]

Yeah, I know all about leaflets -

Leaflets dropped in early December 1937 in Nanking, China by Imperial Japanese Army-


Text - "Return to your homes. We will give you rice to eat. Trust and Rely on the Japanese army, you can get help!



The fate of 400,000 Chinese in Nanking in the 6 weeks that followed.


Leaflet dropped in the pacific theater for Allied soldiers (text included)



The fate of thousands of Allied POWs who surrendered.



Yeah, I know all about leaflets...

[JHH]

1. Did the U.S. drop leaflets before Hiroshima?

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. no, but they did after

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/hiroshima-nagasaki/leaflets-dropped_1945-08-06.htm

[JHH]

4. Thank You

[EFerrari]

3. On repetition, the joke gets no better. n/t

[JHH]

6. War is no joke

[EFerrari]

8. True. But pretending to inoculate yourself from fault

by dropping handbills on targeted civilians is a joke. Or, an obscenity.

[Baselinereality]

5. Not Only That, But It Sends A Bit Of A Mixed Message

While you're dropping leaflets on people telling them to get out of the area to not only bomb the roads that lead to safety but to also blow up the cars and vans with the white sheets hanging out the windows.

But, never forget: "Israel, as does any nation, has the right to defend herself." Ahem.

[peacebird]

7. sometimes I wonder....

is israel attacking Lebanon to keep Iraq off the front pages for bush, and to try to lure Syria into the fray so bush has an excuse to bomb them too?

[EFerrari]

10. "This must be the Forrest of Arden."

Probably so, peacebird. :(

[peacebird]

14. peace... all anyone wants is a chance to live in peace, feed their family,

have a roof over their heads, the freedom to love, and live....


:cry:

may the universe take mercy on the innocents and may karma take her revenge on the perpetrators of violence.

[Sherman A1]

29. Agreed

One must defend itself from those well marked ambulances, children cowering in basements and mapped positions of international observer forces. One just never knows when 4 guys in blue helmets might launch a major offensive against your positions. Or would it be more to blind the eyes of the observation post as in the case of the USS Liberty? Hmmmm......

[k_jerome]

9. so you are equating warning civilians to evacuate with these...

examples you posted, however effective it was? the depths to which this bashing has sunk is very disturbing.

[JHH]

11. the point is warning others to leave does not remove the guilt

any more than telling jews to leave the Middle East removes the guilt of car bombs...

[k_jerome]

12. bullshit. the leaflets posted were not warnings....

did you read the leaflets posted? they were deliberate attempts to mislead civilians and U.S. soldiers in order to kill and/or capture them. the poster is insinuating that this is what Israel is attempting to do.

[flyarm]

16. msnbc reported that no leaflets were dropped in Qana to evac..

they repeated this often this morning ..over and over again..they said other towns got leaflets but not Qana!

fly

[k_jerome]

18. what does that have to do with the OP saying that Israel...

is dropping leaflets to herd civilians in order to slaughter them?

[flyarm]

31. sorry but i am not being baited into these bs discussions..

bait someone else..

i am stating a fact..i will keep most of my opinions to myself..

but for anyone to say the people of Qana were dropped leaflets..that is not factual

fly

[daydreamer]

17. They first bomb the roads and airports. Then they ask people to leave.

This is a bad joke!!! Bastards.

[JHH]

19. I have heard with my own ears that Israel does not target civilians

but my eyes say other wise view this BBC video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLNpEGqmT84

[cool user name]

39. Absolutely disgusting! n/t

[EFerrari]

23. Israel would NEVER do something that sneaky!

Just like they wouldn't plan this offensive for an entire YEAR with our own Cabal, send troops over the border and then use a capture as a pretext.

Oh no, they'd NEVER do that.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/21/MIDEAST.TMP

[Baselinereality]

26. I Took The Poster's Point To Be That...

Leaflet dropping, as a general tool of war, has been disastrous. That's how I took it. OF COURSE the Israelis attempting to warn civilians of impending destruction is not the same as the Japanese luring Chinese people back to their villages in order to execute them. I certainly did not take it that way.

But, tossing leaflets at people telling them to get out sure does look good on Israel's conscience, despite the fact that they blew up the roads and bridges that would have allowed many people to escape. They did not, for example, open up clear channels of safe passage for humanitarian workers or people trying to escape.

[BigMcLargehuge]

49. Thank you. That was my intent

[murielm99]

13. It is very

disturbing, isn't it?

I have stayed out of these threads, because I can see that there is truth in both sides' positions. But I think I may need to take a short break from DU. It is hotter in here than it is outside.

[k_jerome]

21. the level of this is becoming eerily familiar...

this has gone far beyond criticism of policy. far beyond.

[JHH]

27. Yes it is a criticism of actions not unlike actions the U.S. has taken

around the world and been criticized on this site

[Baselinereality]

28. Touche.

Some people are so busy brushing off criticism as clear examples of anti-semitism that they're not even listening to the criticisms. Some Palestinians complain of that same frustrating inability to be heard.

I don't know how anything can get solved if nobody is listening.

[Lerkfish]

42. actually, I have been just as critical of US policy in IRaq

and never gotten any flak for it.
And I am. Just as critical of American policy in the middle east. I've spoken loud and long against the abuses in abu ghraib, the unjust preemptive war, the destruction of infrastructure.

JUST AS CRITICAL. yet I never had so many DUers come after me, not then.

I"m against the actions and the policy. And, I'm consistent about it. What is not consistent is I never saw any objections to my outrage until it was Isreal.

now, what does THAT mean, exactly?

[havocmom]

15. Dropping leaflets and bombing escape routes not dissimilar

to other abuses of civilian populations after dropping leaflets in past wars.

[EFerrari]

25. It must be a unit in "Invasion 101"

:(

[Baselinereality]

22. Please Stop Referring to Every Opinion Different From Yours As Bashing.

[Ms. Clio]

20. such a weird picture, the nude

I just don't get that one at all.

[Bucky]

30. Well, it ain't a bowl of rice. I wonder how the model felt about her gig.

Did they warn her? Did they say, "Yo, Myrna! How'd ya like to flash a little flesh and save a few lives?" I mean, she's cute, but I don't think I'd betray my country for her.

Propaganda doesn't have to be sophisticated. In fact, the best is usually heavy handed. I doubt many Japanese soldiers would have thought that that was part of the surrender package waiting for them behind American lines. Probably the intent is to remind the men that there are other things to live for besides serving the Emperor. For instance, finding a hot chick who's willing to, um, "serve the emperor" if you know what I mean (and if you don't, I mean "sex"). The Japanese weren't all that different in how they used the sexy soft voice of Tokyo Rose to undermine American and Anzac morale.

[Ms. Clio]

32. That's Japanese propaganda, though

All I can figure is they must have believed the GIs were mindless horndogs, and were trying to use an image similar to the famous pinups of Grable, etc.

[rockymountaindem]

38. It gets people to pick up the leaflet

Porn and other explicit imagery can be an effective tool of war. The US dropped leaflets to German soldiers in Italy suggesting that the Hitler Youth was nothing but a creche for pedophiles and that if those men wanted to save their kids from being achem... "taken advantage of" by Hiter Youth leaders they should desert and go home to protect their sons. The leaflet featured a sketch of one supposed "abuse", if you get my drift. Definately an attention grabber.

For something a little less perverse, here's an example of a "you're all gonna die" leafet dropped by Germany over Britain intended for US and British air crews:

[Ms. Clio]

41. very interesting, thanks

really not something I ever thought of before, but that does make a (rather sick) kind of sense.

[rockymountaindem]

43. If you want to see some really bizarre yet creative stuff

google "WWII propaganda leaflets" or "WWII propaganda posters". The British came up with some very, very good stuff. One of them featured close-up photos of dead women and children who wound up in the London morgue. The British then dropped them over the German lines as a kind of fake German notice saying "These civilians were killed by British imperialist bombing raids over our cities and their bodies remain unclaimed. If anyone recognizes a mother, daughter or sister, please contact..."

The trick was to make it look like it was an official German document asking for help. Some of the faces in those photos are really sickening.

[Ms. Clio]

46. I will, thanks!

That really displays an attempt to hit the enemy on several different psychological levels -- note the emphasis on dead women, too.

[Stand and Fight]

50. The purpose is to get men to pick up the leaflet...

Chop it up to the fact that many of those men had not seen a naked woman in "forever." Words on paper would not attract a man's attention, but a naked woman in a seductive pose would. Psychological warfare. Nothing more.

[Ms. Clio]

51. yes, thanks, someone else pointed that, out, too

it does make sense.

[idgiehkt]

24. man...

I read both of Iris Chang's books back to back...

I don't know which was more devastating, "The Rape of Nanking" or "The Chinese in America".

I was prepared for Nanking; but I was totally unprepared for The Chinese in America.

I think I cried all the way through both of them.

[RSMS9999]

33. unbelievable

how can you twist israel dropping leaflets warning people where they are going to bomb as a war crime.

do you realize how insane this is?

[stepnw1f]

34. Where Did idgiehkt Do That

"warning people where they are going to bomb as a war crime"

[JHH]

35. Is Israel telling people to leave there homes or die any different than

telling jews to leave there home land or die?

[Ms. Clio]

37. I think you responded to the wrong post

and so sorry if those comparisons are just too apt.

[Ms. Clio]

36. you know she committed suicide, yes?

Very sad. :(

[idgiehkt]

40. yes.

I know she was depressed and I can see how after writing those books. I just wonder if taking all of that into her psyche and then dispersing it to the world was just to much for her. I think what she did is so incredibly heroic...the world lost such a great person when she died. I know the Chinese government was supposed to have commissioned two jade statues of her; I haven't been able to find out if they were finished.

[Minstrel Boy]

44. "The German soldier is your friend"

[Taxloss]

45. So, dropping leaflets means you're as bad as Imperial Japan.

Interesting moral logic there. Note that the Japanese leaflets told people that they should stay at home as they were in no danger, while the Israeli ones told people to leave their homes because they were in great danger. But I guess you're right, they are exactly the same. :sarcasm:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

47. Hizbullah should have leafleted Haifa before sending rockets.

That would have made it justifiable to kill civilians. Right?

[Make7]

48. First they should send "leaflet" rockets, followed by armed ones. ( n/t )