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From: aleck@krypton.ecn.purdue.edu (Aleck Alexopoulos)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.mideast,trial.talk.politics.peace,alt.conspiracy,alt.desert-storm
Subject: Re: The Nuclear Option
Message-ID: <aleck.667006302@krypton.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 19 Feb 91 23:31:42 GMT
References: <1991Feb7.025838.13793@panix.uucp> 	<1991Feb9.075438.17779@alembic.acs.com> 	<1991Feb11.023449.17583@ddsw1.MCS.COM> 	<1991Feb11.172446.7039@engin.umich.edu> 	<1991Feb11.204302.27201@meteor.wisc.edu> <JMC.91Feb11182258@DEC-Lite.Stanford.EDU> <1991Feb12.174
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plogan@mentorg.com (Patrick Logan) writes:

>In article <1991Feb12.174432.904@ccu.umanitoba.ca> thorntn@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Duncan Peter G. Thornton) writes:
>   I would like to give Truman the benefit of the doubt here, 
>   and assume that he did not drop both bombs because he was
>   worried about re-election, but because he sincerely believed
>   it would save lives (and not just American soldiers' lives).

>It is widely accepted now that the bombs were dropped in August in an
>effort to reduce Soviet influence in post-war Asia. Evidence in the
>form of diaries and other documents made available via the freedom of
>information act is widely available but doesn't receive much
>publicity.

OK, you have two bombs and lets say that you want to use them to put an 
end to the war and thus minimize the casualities. Why not use the first 
one as a WARNING? For example, drop on a lightly populated area and 
THEN demand an unconditional surrender "or else". 
   Even if your enemy doesnt surrender and you're forced to drop the 
next one on a big city, you can still claim that .... "well at least we tried". 

Lets face it, the last thing on the US generals minds at the time was 
minimizing Japanese civilian casualitites......    

But then, thats war.......
Lets hope it "never happens again".  

Aleck H Alexopoulos