Reply #63: And Obama should apologize for it. And then be called an apologist

[Hansel]

by the same people who would make the argument the OP has.

Everything about war sucks and is unfair. That's why you avoid them at all cost. I understand the rationale behind dropping the bomb. But many of the people who died were no more culpable for what the Japanese government was doing than we are for what the Bush administration did in Iraq. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that. There is nothing wrong with asking forgiveness for killing vast numbers of unsuspecting unarmed women and children. I'm sure that when Truman ordered the bombing he asked forgiveness in his prayers somewhere along the lines of "God forgive me".

You either make the war your own personal hell for the rest of your life, or you find ways to cope. The vast majority of survivors on both sides of the war found ways to cope. Some, like one of my old neighbors, drank himself to death while living his experiences in an endless loop. One of my good friends has spent his entire post Vietnam war life in and out of psych wards. These men encountered horrors that most of us could never relate to or even imagine. They never forgave, but it was not the enemy who was destroyed.

As a nation, we cannot let that happen. We have to move on. So we do. Part of moving on is forgiveness and acknowledgment of the suffering, and wondering out loud if maybe there was a better way. And the answer may very well be that there wasn't. That still doesn't mean that innocent civilians who suffered at our nation's hand do not deserve an apology, even if the suffering was unavoidable.