
They are trying to outdo the German Nazis of the 20th century, and seemingly succeeding.  


For an American strategist to so deeply misunderstand the end of the Second World War, its circumstances and strategies, is almost as amazing.  

In summary, the Japaneses were already beaten, and knew it.  I can't begin to give examples here, but despite relentlessly cheery propaganda, everyone sensed the end was near.  For those at the top, the Kamekazi program embodied the attitude of utmost desperation, and it had been approved and started some two years previously.  

So as far as Japan went, the atom bomb merely brought forward the inevitable.  But an American strategist ought also to know that the main purpose of the bomb was to intimidate Stalin.  In this it was only marginally successful:  Stalin did not quake in his boots nor beg for mercy.  Rather, it persuaded him to accelerate his own A-bomb program.  

Sadists who think they are smart but aren't are clearly a danger to themselves and others.  Sadly, therapeutic intervention is not in the cards.  Disaster, however, is.

It should be added, obvious though it be:  The whole concept of shock-and-awe is a boy-child's fantasy of omnipotent revenge.  

These guys should have read Nabokov's The Waltz Invention.  Might have saved them from living it.  

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Mon Jan 2nd, 2006 at 07:44:27 PM EST

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