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[David Minton <dminton AT mindspring.com>]

On 10/22/04 1:31 PM, "rua AT mindspring.com" <rua AT mindspring.com> wrote:

> Evan,
> 
> I think you summed up my response well enough. I'm not sure where I come 
> down
> on the ethics and "best course" of it at this point. I do worry that there 
> are
> decisions that need to be made, that the populace may never have the courage
> as a group to make. I think that is part of the reason for a representative
> goverment. We pick the person of certain ideologies and character, and then
> they make the decisions they feel they must.
> 
> i.e. Truman dropping the Hbomb was probably one of the most significant 
> events
> in the history of man. Should he have floated the idea out as trial 
> balloons,
> or even more directly presented the proposal to the people? I'm sure many 
> will
> differ on that count, but I'm not sure where I come out. I think "strategy 
> by
> popular opinion" could be a plan for failure in a serious game of world
> security.

Very different situation. I believe the American people were firmly behind
the military defeat of Japan. Without the bomb, I recall estimates of over
1,000,000 US casualties in the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

David