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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (135370)	6/2/2004 6:14:27 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I'm not sure that terrorists ala Al Qaeda are technically a "totalitarian ideology", but more a "theocratic nationalistic movement". And so was Communism and Nazism.. Hell, the Nazis referred to themselves as the National Socialist party and they were VERY nationalistic, to the point where many people who couldn't prove their Germanic heritage were either forced to leave, or sent to the concentration camps. It's a totalitarian state when a group of elites (the Islamic clergy in this case) dictate the rules by which the society will live. Have you forgotten the Taliban so quickly and how they would ban electronic equipment like TV and Radios, as well as simple pleasures as Kite flying? It's a HELL of a lot more than mere "deference" to scripture and prayer. It's REQUIRED upon pain of severe repercussions. When Bush starts trying to force us to go to church, and has our pastors instruct us on the "fine merits" of waging a crusade to force the muslims to "convert or die", or becoming a martyr for christ by blowing up innocent civilians, Christian and Muslim alike, then you might have a genuine comparison.. But only then. As for the bombing of Japan, I'm not sure we saved quite so many lives considering how much bombing we'd already done. Why don't you research "Operation Downfall", Olympic" and "Coronet", Cosmo.. Hell, I'll even provide you a link: neswa.org.au Casualties were expected to be extremely heavy. Admiral William Leahy estimated that there would be more than 250,000 Americans killed or wounded on Kyushu alone. Gen. Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific, estimated American casualties from the entire operation would be 1 million men by the fall of 1946. Willoughby's own intelligence staff considered this to be a conservative estimate. During the summer of 1945, America had little time to prepare for such an endeavour, but top military leaders were in almost unanimous agreement that an invasion was necessary. Read that entire article and then try and convince us that dropping those nuclear weapons didn't save both American and Japanese lives. Hawk