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

[Leslie Smith]

I THINK A BLABBERMOUTH WROTE THAT STUFF.
 
  Les
  vk2bcu at operamail.com


On Fri, Nov 30, 2012, at 9:08, Leslie Smith wrote:
> 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.....
> > 
> > ______________________________________________________________
> > ARC5 mailing list
> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> > Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
> > 
> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> 
> -- 
> http://www.fastmail.fm - The way an email service should be
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - Accessible with your email software
                          or over the web