[ARC5] Well OT. Was OT - Soviets aren't stupid

[Leslie Smith]

Hello David,

On Thu, Nov 29, 2012, at 23:40, David Stinson wrote:
> 
> We killed 30 million people in WWI with conventional weapons.
> We killed 50 million people in WWII with conventional weapons.
> Without "The Sword of Damocles" [MAD] hanging over our collective heads and forcing us to behave for half a century [we'd be up a > strange creek without a paddle].  

True, but the solution goes beyond military capability.
We hear a great deal about the danger of nuclear war (and that is true)
but a less noted fact is that the death toll in Tokoyo, May '45 (when
General Curtiss LeMay fire-bombed Tokoyo)  was within 10% of the death
toll of Hiroshima.  So we should understand that ANY kind of war
(including conventional war) has a capacity for dreadful casualties.  

My father-in-law was a POW in Japan when the war ended.  I asked him
about his memory of the atomic bomb.  He said the general talk (in the
POW camp) about a single bomb that destroyed a city was "can't happen". 
It's impossible to make a bomb that large.  No plane could carry such a
bomb, etc.  
So he an a "mate" got on a train and travelled to Hiroshima and saw the
damage with his own eyes.

Geoff said it was a strange journey.  
They were obviously "Aussies", but there was little animosity. 
He and Jerry were well treated, taking into account the circumstances at
that time.  

Your observation below, including "some nut-job" is sobering.  I make
that comment remembering a biography of Rooseveldt I read by Watson.  In
that book Tom Watson shows a news-paper photo (probably from New York,
and certainly from USA) with the sentiment:

      perhaps Rooseveld may be able to do for US what Hitler had done
      for Germany.  

Yes, that was the essence of the headline.
Clearly Hitler was clearly seen as a "good fellow" - a saviour of his
nation - at the time America needed a saviour, and by a major US press
editor.   In the end Hitler turned out to be "some nut-job".
This says something about the capacity of the public mind to judge
character - at least in the short term.

Turning to the idea of long-term political stability I want to say this:
In the end I believe that COMMON DECENCY was the ingredient (in the
first half of the 20th century) WAS AS IMPORTANT as US military power. 
The murder of JFK (and his brother) saw the moment that marked a decline
in that public decency.  (Not the cause, only the mark.)   That murder
was a public statement of disrespect for the Office of President, (or
the office of a Prime Minister).  I do not deny the need for a strong
arm (Rooseveld said "Walk softly, carry a big stick"), but democracy
depends on public decency. 
Churchill said, regarding General George Marshall:  "He was the greatest
gentleman I knew." 

DECENCY is the element that keeps America strong.
BTW - I have taken the time to speak with level-headed moslems.
The few I know are sober, level-headed, decent people with good values.
As were my German ancestors in the 20s and 30s and 40s.

I'm off topic.

Les


> We no longer have that stabilizing situation.
> Bloodthirsty Islamist who want to murder the world
> and a global super-oligarchy that would delight in
> a massive population reduction are roiling the mix.
> It's not a matter of "if" some nut-job pops one.....
> 
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