Ramblings of a Crowe

Did anyone else see this coming?

Or was it just me? I've been reading the news online and etc for awhile now, and it surprises me how we are hearing about more and more "non-arab" terrorist uprisings. I mean, just look at those loonies with the school full of kids over in Russia...

Could it be, that with all the "we have to play nice so absolutly no one gets hurt" games the rest of the world has been playing, that more terrorists are crawling out of the wood work? Is this the message those peace lovers wanted to get across? That we'll bind the hands of the people that protect us and let terrorists of all sorts kill our families and children with very little or no conciquence? I'm not just talking about those of us in the US, I'm talking about people all over the world. Iraq is sending a HUGE message to terrorists all over, if you ask me. It's saying, if we push hard enough, we'll get what we want...Is this what the world needs? Not all terrorists are Arab Islamic Fantatics folks...so, in this age of political correctness, does the world treat non-arab terrorists the same way, by giving in to them? Or do they just go in and blow them to Hell? I guess we'll have to see...

I'm all for option #2. Sounds barbaric, doesn't it? Honestly, think about it though...In WWII the atomic bombs ended the war with Japan, killing a lot of people (I don't quite remember the numbers but it was about 75,000 in Hiroshima and another 70,000 in Nagasaki. More died from Radiation later). Even to me, someone who supports this decision, the pictures are appaling. However, if stepping back to take in the entirety of the situation, it was necessary. At the time, Japan had 2 million soliders ready to fight and another 30 million civilians just ready to give up their lives for "death over dishounor". Back then, in Japan, death in war wasn't to be avoided, in fact, it was to be searched out. Dying in battle was glorious (you can trace this belief through out all of Japan's history, actually). Shintoisim preached radical self sacrifice, incouraging the people to give themselves to the war at any cost and that surrender was so dishounorable, that it wasn't even a possibility. In fact, it was in Saipan that Japanese civilians actually jumped from cliffs in order to avoid surrender. Even the Japanese slogan at the time was "the hounrable death of 100 million".

Before the bombings, the Japanese military had a force of 700,000 in Kyushu waiting to continue the fight. The Americans has lost 75,000 troops seizing Okinawa, and it was estimated that if the war with Japan continued, another 500, 000 Americans would be lost, and nearly 5 million Japanese would die as well. So the decision was to drop the bombs as a way to deter the Japanese, and put and end to the fighting.

It worked, but only after we dropped the second bomb. After the first initial bombing, Japan still refused to surrender. It was only after the second bombing that the country finally dropped it's weapons and ended the war.

So, looking back on that bit of history, we know that hundreds of thousands of innocent people died. A shame as well as horrific. But would it have been even more horrific if we let the fighting go on and instead millions more died in a needless battle? All war is needless, but human nature makes us violent. A sad, but accurate truth.

Of course, time are different now. Everyone has weapons of mass destruction...and many, many innocent people will die if they are used (even American citizens). No one uses these weapons, knowing that other countries would be quick to utilize theirs as well, so the world is held at bay against itself in some odd, shakey truce. However, I'm not saying drop a bomb on all terrorist factions. I'm saying stop hiding behind the cries of ignorant peace mongers who are to afraid to look deep within the human mind...People kill each other. That won't ever change, no matter how hard you wish for it. Humans were made for violence, it's part of our strange, twisted nature.

To save lives from these terrorists, we need to set an example as a world. Go in and take them out...at any cost. If a mosque in the middle east needs to come down, so be it. If the pope's house has to be blown up...fine. If the pentagon is over run with bomb toting thugs, by all means, take it out. Don't give terrorists a reason it exist. Send them a message loud and clear. You can't hide behind those protest loving, ignorant love and peace idiots anymore. They don't love life. They are so in love with their ideals that they are willing to sacrifice even more innocent people for it's cause. So now, who are the hypocrits?

Honestly, I too would like humans to live together peacefully...but I've resigned myself to understand that a Utopia like that isn't possible. There will aways be people who crave power. There will always be people who enjoy killing. There will always be people who hate other people for stupid reasons. Humans are sick animals...not to mention very sad. So instead of hiding from the truth, why not face it instead. Perhaps we can change things that way?

Anway...I'll get off my soapbox now. Here's a small picture that I believe emulates the feelings I have about electronics these days...

(Batsu gives his walkman some lovin)

Posted by Zoso at September 1, 2004 08:29 AM