riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (01/23/84)
From holt@parsec.UUCP Sat Jan 21 21:46:12 1984 >> >> "Gee, Robert, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that those were >> >> *innocent* Japanese *civilians* we dropped the bombs on." >> >> >> >> Alan S. Driscoll >> >> Gee, Alan, correct me if I'm wrong, but I though that we Americans were >> being chastised in the original note for not responsibly policing our >> government's actions. Do you think that the Japanese or German people of >> World War II were any less responsible for their government's actions? >> >> Dave Holt (parsec!holt) Gee, Dave, but I have trouble believing what I think you're saying -- namely that if a country gets itself involved in a war, all of its citizens, right down to the babes in arms, deserve it if they are slaughtered because they are "responsible for their government's actions". Whatever your opinion of the complicity of the Japanese or German citizenry in their countries' crimes, any wanton destruction of Japanese or German civilians on our part (as has been suggested was what we did in Nagasaki and Dresden, among other places) is totally unjustifiable. I happen to agree (I think) with both you and the writer of the first "Flame on America" that the American public is responsible right now for some pretty heinous crimes of its own, and that those crimes stem from its apathy and ignorance (what you summarize as "sitting at home, watching prime time tv, and ignoring the actions of their government"). Nevertheless, I don't believe that the victims of our apathy will be justified if they respond with terrorism, firebombs or nukes; neither are we justified in shrugging our shoulders over Nagasaki and saying, "Ahh, the lousy Japs had it coming to them." If violence is ever excusable, it is as a vile means of avoiding an even more vile end, not as payment in kind to those "responsible" for some act. --- Prentiss Riddle --- ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle