Reply #15: This column is a pathetic apologia for state violence against civilians,

[RichM]

committed unnecessarily by the US. It's very typical of Nick Kristof, who is usually (not always, but more than 95% of the time) a bootlicker & sycophant. He pretends to honestly consider the possibility that perhaps something was wrong with nuking 2 cities full of civilians (a question mark appears in the title on the original article, "Blood on Our Hands?"), in an already-defeated nation, unable to even get an airplane into the sky to defend itself against the fleets of American B-29's.

But not to worry - Kristof's real intent, visible after 2 quick paragraphs of considering the unthinkable, is to conclude happily that the US of course acted nobly and with wisdom, only resorting to nuclear weapons because the enemy was so deranged. Unsurprisingly, he manages to find a few Japanese willing to call the nukings a "gift from Heaven" that the US, in its infinite wisdom & justice, used against them.

Look at this sickening last sentence: "But we owe it to history to appreciate that the greatest tragedy of Hiroshima was not that so many people were incinerated in an instant, but that in a complex and brutal world, the alternatives were worse." Rough translation: "But we owe it to our own worship of power & violence to always view the crimes against humanity committed by our armed forces as justified by the power of Heaven & eternal Justice."