The Hiroshima bomb

I first realized that I thought differently in high school. Even though it was 1997 and a decade away from the Soviet-America threat of nuclear war, nuclear bombs and Hiroshima were still a hot topic in my school. The large majority of students thought that America was wrong to bomb Hiroshima and that all countries should give up their nuclear weapons. Ever the free thinker, I disagreed with them on both issues.

First off, Hiroshima. Let's be very clear about something. Harry Truman actually saved lives in the long run by dropping the two nuclear bombs. War is hell. I've never been to war, thank God, but war back in 1944 was a special kind of hell. By all accounts Japan was ready to continue fighting and go out in a blaze of glory until Truman dropped the first nuclear bomb. By dropping the first bomb, he made it clear that he wasn't messing around anymore and that this war needed to stop. The more controversial second bomb also signified that Japan had better surrender. Japan did, thus saving the lives of countless Allied and ironically, Axis troops. Truman was correct to drop both bombs.

Second, let's talk about nuclear weapons. One of the core beliefs that separates children from adults is the acceptance that evil exists in the world. Like it or not, there are people in the world that want to kill you for any number of reasons and no, you cannot just love them into changing. To think that you can cuddle and hug people into good behavior is the fantasy of a child and tragically, I know of so many adults that haven't advanced past that stage. Am I saying we should get involved in every conflict out there? Play world police? Of course not. But we need nuclear weapons because bad guys have them. What stopped NYC from getting nuked by the Soviet Union from 1945-1991 was the certain belief that Moscow would be nuked if NYC was. Reagan was right about many things (yes, he was wrong about things too) but his peace through strength was one hundred percent accurate. We need nukes because the bad guys have them and the only thing keeping them from being used is the knowledge that we would punch back.