American POW vids

madmallard · Post by **madmallard** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 5:28 pm

ddn't say that
Indeed they did a great job helping us getting started again and they sometimes supported us afterwards -> German reunion.
But, of course, they had their own intentions with that primary the war against communism and to stop the continental colonialism of the soviet union.
Germany was set to become the greatest battlefield in history if the cold war would have become a hot one.
Most French missiles had and still have a range that is limited to somewhere before the Polish border.
So nukes etc. would have been dropped directly on German ground...
Japan is still imoprtant to US forces, as it's next to communist countries like North Korea and US greatest rival, the Peoples Republic of China.
That only in addition.

Yes, they're both important to America to this day, not just because of industrial might they represent and trade that flows between, but because the populace is generally cool.

We'll chalk that last pass up to out mis-understanding of eachother's English. ;p

Ok,Ok - I myself consider Einstein still a German scientist, because he did most of this work and research over here.
We all know what Hitler did to Jewish people and if I was in the same situation back then, I'd have most likely been to go to the US as well.
I don't consider Einstein that great anymore because he was the leading force behind the invention of atomic bomb and it's greatest advocate.
The A-Bomb was the first weapon of mass destruction and it had horrible effects in Japan - over 200000 civilians killed in an instant and the same number over the following years.
I don't expect a scientist whom I call great to invent something like that.

UNfortunately he was great in the sense that he helped up develope it -first-. It truly was a race and Mr Einstein rightly convinced our administration that this advancement was important for us to acheive first. He was not an advocate for mass destruction, but he did understand that the sword should be held by the persons that held similar views to himself, rather than not.

Giton · Post by **Giton** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:04 pm

UNfortunately he was great in the sense that he helped up develope it -first-. It truly was a race and Mr Einstein rightly convinced our administration that this advancement was important for us to acheive first. He was not an advocate for mass destruction, but he did understand that the sword should be held by the persons that held similar views to himself, rather than not.

Even if you're driven by fear you should not develope such awful weapons.
There was a threat that Nazis could develope such a weapon and German scientists did have the knowlege indeed. It was both the idea and the need they lacked. Hitler had already produced huge amounts of chemical weaponary. So people still say he didn't use it because he got wounded in a gas attack during WW I, but why produce it then? Truth is that he feared Britain to have the same weapons (they didn't have, but they had better intelligence that made Hitler believe they had).
Japan in contrast didn't have any of these weapons, US just dropped the bombs to shorten the war and to not have to invade.
Oppenheimer didn't feel repentant for providing just another weapon to the US army, but because he knew how much harm an a-bomb could do.

We'll chalk that last pass up to out mis-understanding of eachother's English. ;p

So many mistakes?

Or just because is use British English?
Please feel free to correct me if I did some severe mistakes, my English usage is still far way from perfect...

Giton · Post by **Giton** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:31 pm

Sorry for double posting but I overlooked kthulhu's post somehow.

So you're willing to write off Einstein and his other scientific contributions, all because you don't like the A-bomb, something that he didn't even contribute help to? Seems rather narrow minded.

I don't like a-boms as well I don't like biolgical or chemical weapons.
Sorry for writing nonsense but I was misinformed in this matter, your source is correct.
But is still shows that many people did regret to have participated in the developement of the a-bomb, what again proofs that one should think twice about what he's doing if there are adverse effects to fear.
I seems to be the burden of every great scientist to be involved in the invention od weapons, does it?

madmallard · Post by **madmallard** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:43 pm

And mine is?

I'll bet your English is better than my German.

Okami Productions · Post by **Okami Productions** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:45 pm

If I remember correctly Einstein wasn't really gonna say anything about the development of the A-bomb. A scentist buddy of his got him to right a letter to the president. The very man ran the project, his name escapes me now, I watched it on the history channel. Personally the development of the atomic bomb was one of mankinds greatest mistakes no matter the end justification. Nucluer weapons will haunt humanity for along time. Even if it did end the war with Japan early the fear that nuclear bombs bring today, make it a great mistake.

OtakuOutpost · Post by **OtakuOutpost** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:07 pm

The harnessing of Atomic Energy is not a mistake. The misuse of Atomic Energy is. Anything that creates energy is potentially a bomb. The development of the Atomic bomb was inevitable. If it hadn't been us, it would have been someone else.

Was it a mistake to develope it? No. I think Atomic Energy has been a great benefit to humanity and will continue to be so. It's sad to think that the incredible power generated by the reaction can be applied to killing but there's nothing you can do about that.

Anytime a man inspects an implement, one of the characteristics he naturally inspects is it's destructive potential. It's in our genes. Deal with it.

--Tony

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:22 pm

Odds are the A-bomb would've been developed no matter what, unfortunately. Nazi Germany had been working on one, the US made one, and the Soviet Union probably could've made one on their own, eventually.

As for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those were a mixed blessing, in a way. They allowed the Japanese command to surrender and save face, which helped keep Japan together, it probably ended the war sooner and may have saved as many lives as it took (a land invasion could've been very bloody and dragged on for a long time), and one could say the horror and damage done by the blasts helped ensure that the A-bomb would never be used as a regular combat weapon - indeed, it drove civilized nations to seek other methods of resolving differences. It also seemed to strongly pacify Japan, which had happily visited its own brand of atrocities on Asia.

Okami Productions · Post by **Okami Productions** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:23 pm

This is true, I dont think it is in our genes though, I believe it is because of today's society that we make everything destructive that we can. Oh well, hopefully we dont blow up the world.

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:35 pm

Today's society?!

The human penchant for creating and improving destructive power goes back ages. From early humans using rocks instead of justing beating each other with bare hands, to javelins to bows to firearms, to today's era of minigun and missile launcher armed jets and nuclear missiles instead of biplanes and single barrel machine guns, we've been making everything more destructive for eons.

Okami Productions · Post by **Okami Productions** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:49 pm

oops I forgot to go back and take out "today".