Yes and it was horrific plain and simple.

Hey Zany, my dad served in the Korean war as well. He was a drill seargent and all us kids were WELL aware of it, LOL.

I too, send blessings to all of our military, past, present, and future. No matter what purpose, their loyalty to protecting us is amazing.

You are in my heart NB666, hope you feel lifted soon. xo

Why even drop the first atomic bomb?

sw - that is not a justification. so what they didn't surrender? we respond with NUCLEAR weaponry? TWICE?

so our motto is: if you don't wave the white flag we're going to kill your innocent children and maim an entire population for YEARS??

that's disgusting rationalization.

My last thing, you all weren't alive back then and neither was I, but my parents were. As were my grandparents. I listen to those that were alive at that time. They know more than we do. We can't just allow ourselves as Americans to be attacked. On 9/11, we were sleeping giants and were attacked. We have to be on guard and that sucks. But we have not used nuclear weapons since. I know Oppenheimer had his many regrets. True saying. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. That being said, thanks to our brave men and women in uniform all over the world and I hope they come home soon. And we all have the right to our views and opinions. I won't close my mind to what Chanel wants me to look at or the docu linasmom recommends. On 9/11 it was innocent civilians as well that were taken out. Let us not forget the souls lost that day.

Back to the topic at hand concerning Vietnam:

http://www.atpm.com/7.01/washington-dc/images/vietnam-memorial.jpg

http://www.thepaine.org/artist-in-res/SuzanneRose/images/JanFeb/600/19-VietnamMemorial.jpg

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:sPAQbkh6LJ7FeM:http://www.lsu.edu/lsutoday/011109/Vietnam%20Wall.jpg&t=1

pffftt!!!!!!! We do it all the time.

gorgeous pictures, chanel.

thanks for bringing it back to Vietnam.

ahem.

But the difference with 9-11 was it wasn't an actual war, it wasn't a country, it was a terrorist act perpetuated by a group of men (not a country) and while their actions did kill many innocent people you cannot compare it with how many innocent lives were lost during Hiroshima or Nagasaki at the hands of an actual Government.. They are just two completely different things.

here's the thing about Americans -

we walk around thinking, in quite a delusion, that we are immune to the travesties the rest of the world endures.

maybe it's time we wake up.


sorry.

Our actions forge the path for peace or war. I would much rather be the example for peace. Man has not the right to take the life of another under any circumstances.

I totally agree Shelly.

Peace won't happen in this lifetime. Beautiful thought but never going to happen. We were at peace 9 years ago, or so we thought. And now here we are engaged in two wars, one completely unnecessary. I never liked Bush, but I haven't enjoyed Obama's world apology tour either and I consider myself a liberal. There will always be those who want to attack us and we have to defend ourselves. In war, killing happens. My brother-in-law is a Marine. I'm sure he's killed others. That's a part of war. Now I say let's bring out troops home through a coordinated effort, from Afghanistan and Iraq. And keep our guard up. And linasmom, you are right about Americans having this idea that the world revolves around us. It doesn't. But I will still cry on Saturday. And I will never forget.

"Never" is a very long time. I believe even in reality, man can achieve peace through example....

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
- Winston Churchill

I hope you're right Shelly. And I like the Churchill quote. It's just hard but I guess the best we can do is be examples to others by how we live our lives and treat our fellow Americans. There's only so much we have control over and our actions are one of those things. Walk in love, though some days it's hard. I remember 9 years ago when we all came together as Americans. We were so bonded. I wish that could happen again.