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Nuclear terrorism is really, really hard, which is why it has been confined (so far!) to fiction.
by Fej 9y ago
Nuclear terrorism is really, really hard, which is why it has been confined (so far!) to fiction.
- spodek 9y agoWikipedia's definition arguably includes the non-fictional Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Terrorism is, in the broadest sense, the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror, or fear, to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim. It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence against peacetime targets or in war against non-combatants.
- ghostcluster 9y agoExcept they occured during an active war and achieved a military goal: to prevent a mainland assault which would have killed an order of magnitude more people.
- mb_72 9y agoI can't find the link right now, but have read a fairly convincing argument that it was the conventional type of bombing, not nuclear, that caused the Japanese to surrender. Still a terrible thing for Japanese civilians though.
- vkou 9y agoThe Soviet invasion of Manchuria was another straw.
- FabHK 9y agoI think it would be wrong to characterise that as the consensus, though. My understanding is that historians haven't come to a conclusive assessment, but that the majority view is that it did cut the war short and save lives (net).
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- manangatangy 9y agoOne of these could be the article you are referring to. [0] https://www.thenation.com/article/why-the-us-really-bombed-hiroshima/ https://www.thenation.com/article/why-the-us-really-bombed-h... [1] http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japa...
- mb_72 9y agoYes, thank you!
- ghostcluster 9y agoThe conventional bombing killed more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- throw2016 9y agoDropping a nuclear bomb on a civilian population is an act of barbarism. Dropping 2 is an act of insanity and is going down in history as one of the most reckless odious crimes against humanity.
- Wohlf 9y agoConventional and fire bombing were just as bad, they only took longer.
- sklinger 9y agoExcept that Japan and the US were at war at the time (therefore not peacetime targets). Maybe you're thinking of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor?
- barry-cotter 9y agoIt’s not terrorism if a government does it openly. It was a breach of international law but to call an attack by one nation’s military on another’s terrorism is well outside any non propagandistic usage.
- gonvaled 9y agoSo you are saying that governments can not be terrorists (as long as they are open about it)? Funny definition is that. So, how do you call acts of agression performed by governments against non combatants? Since the only reason not to call them terrorism is to paint (your?) government actions with a nicer brush, I assume you call those acts "liberation events"
- zdkl 9y ago> So, how do you call acts of agression performed by governments against non combatants? War crimes. The reason not to call it terrorism is because that is not what the word means. If a sovereign nation formally declares war to another, any action covered by international convention is classified seperately from "civil" or militant violence.
- gonvaled 9y agoFair enough!
- barry-cotter 9y agoIf you want to learn more about international humanitarian law there’s an excellent MOOC from UC Louvain on EdX. https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:LouvainX+Louv16x+1T2017/540e625f4d024a3380864e857a7ed0c3/ https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:LouvainX+Louv16x+1...
- Spooky23 9y agoI think in the context of world war 2, the nuclear bombs were just a more powerful instrument of destruction. If anything, they saved humanity from more devastating total war with conventional arms, which would have killed millions more. With the advent of the B29, the US was dropping napalm and phosphorus on Japanese cities to create massive firestorms. The glow of Tokyo burning was visible for hundreds of miles. On the scale of horror or inhumanity, I’m not sure how to compare different types of aerial bombardment targeted civilians as instruments of war production that needed to be eliminated.
- spuz 9y agoActually maybe not as hard as you think: https://youtu.be/9Rni8okfgn4#t=1h34m https://youtu.be/9Rni8okfgn4#t=1h34m