Unfortunately accepting our responsibility for the future includes identifying and confronting injustices of the present.

Dear EJ.,

The point that was being made with the reference
of Hiroshima, and Nagasaki was as stated earlier,
that in war we also have nothing to be self-righteous
about. During WWII the American and British forces
were also guilty of
atrocities. Sustained bombing of German cities -
Dresden in particular comes to mind, and of course
Hitler's bombing of London, and British cities.

"War is not healthy for children and other
living things."

cont'd ...

Abraham Lincoln said it quite well:

"You can't accept the responsibility of tomorrow
by evading it today."

And Eleanor Roosevelt added:

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words.
It is expressed in the choices one makes ...
and the choices we make are ultimately our
responsibility."

I have visited Hiroshima, and it was not a very nice experience; yet, I still felt no qualms about the way America put a stop to the war. Remember, they had to do it twice! I would not bat an eyelid if similar action was found necessary against North Korea or Iran. There is no such thing as 'nice' when it comes to our survival. Neither is there anything nice about the potential threats against Australia and the Western World in the present time.

Dear ttbn,

Here's something I wrote a while back:

"I had a dream the earth was red
Its charred remains cried out and bled
Nothing was living on its face
What happened to the human race?

This darkening vision pronounced life gone
In its place the embers shone
A crimson red like the setting sun
Flames extinguishing one by one

Every night this dream returns
Its dying flame ignites and burns
And with the flame the same quiet fear
There's nothing living on this sphere

A desolate place the earth appears
Its shadow grows as the darkness nears
Suddenly I wake in fright
Having dreamt this vanquishing dread all night

'What is this dream?' I shudder and cry
What I should really ask is, ' WHY!'
Why does it haunt me every day?
Is it my future tenement of clay?

As I lie dreaming and can't rise
Am I foreseeing my own demise?
And then to simply ward off these blues
I go and read the daily news..."

Here's an excerpt from an article I put in an Australian Democrat publication before the Democrats shot their feet off with a bazooka:

Pacifists share some peculiar insensitivities with warriors.

Both proclaim that all use of armed force is morally the same. They are unconcerned whether the purpose is to impose rule on an unwilling population or to resist it. They are unconcerned about whether the combatants are liberators or overlords. Pacifists undiscriminatingly reject the combatants' actions, warriors undiscriminatingly honour them.

All these advocacies are a retreat from pursuit of justice. Justice and the right of peoples to self-determination are low on the totem pole both for pacifists (less important than peace) and for warriors (less important than winning).

To pacifists and warriors alike the aggressive hordes who poured over Europe and Asia in the 1940s to butcher populations should be accorded the same respect as those who gave all to resist and defeat them. Even the great Winston Churchill was mired in that trap when he recoiled in horror at Stalin's proposal at a leaders' meeting to execute all SS officers. ("But they're fighting for their country" the justice-blind Churchill expostulated though Roosevelt was supportive of Stalin's proposal.)

If either pacifists or warriors had prevailed in the last two millennia then there would be no such thing as democracy or human rights, only pacifist obsequiousness and warrior bullying. If our species still existed at all.

During and after the war of the 1940s it was sung of the Allied soldiers:

All they had hoped for, all they had they gave.
To save mankind, themselves they scorned to save.
(Inscribed on a memorial in Leicester)

A timeless truth. Every human being owed them and still owes them.

The scornful corollary dedicated to the Axis soldiers (whom both warriors and pacifists would equate with ours):

All they had hoped for, all they had they gave.
To enslave mankind, themselves they too enslaved.

Another timeless truth.

Hiroshima? Dresden? The mongrels shouldn't have Banzaied and Sieg Heiled their Tojos and Hitlers and soldiers before and throughout the war.