JAPAN WAS NUKED TODAY IN 1945

BEWARE THE ANGER OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

American Freedom Fighters are the most dangerous killing machine on the face of the planet: A terrible swift sword of liberty that if given just the right threat and level of pressure will go into full gear and wreak unimaginable destruction on all foes - foreign and domestic - who threaten The Great Republic. --RONBO

Learning to Love the Bomb

I get impatient when some conservatives (and a few Objectivists) complain that the war in Afghanistan has taken more than twice as long as World War II, because as Stephens points out, the intensity of this conflict is quite low by historical standards. Yes, we fought and won World War II in less than four years—but it cost us 400,000 men and more than 100 percent of one year's economic production.

That's why it's good, on August 6, to take a moment to remember and celebrate the end of that horrible conflict. Which means celebrating the atomic bomb that ended the war, and remembering all of the lives that were made possible because of that bomb. That's what Paul Kengor does in the perfectly guilt-free article below.

"Grateful to Harry," Paul Kengor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 4

This week marks 65 years since the United States dropped the atomic bomb.

As we mark the anniversary of this period, we should first and foremost think about those boys—our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, uncles, brothers, some now in their 80s and 90s—who lived lives of faith and freedom and family because of Truman's decision. I've met many of them. Any time I find myself in conversation with a World War II vet, I ask where he was when the first bomb hit.

"I'll tell you where I was!" snapped George Oakes of Churchill. "I was a 22-year-old kid on a troop transport preparing to invade the Japanese mainland.... We were sitting there as targets for kamikazes when they dropped the first one. All they told us was that there was a new weapon brought into the war that landed on Japan proper, and everything we were planning was on hold. A couple of days later, they dropped the other one."

George, who served with the Army combat engineers, didn't want to die. "I was engaged to an absolutely beautiful girl named Virginia. All I knew was that I wanted to go home."...

"Boy, were we thrilled," recalled George when they got the news on their boat. They were spared an apocalyptic invasion that would have made Normandy look like a picnic at the beach....

George Oakes of Churchill died on Dec. 12, 2001, at age 78, a half-century after Harry Truman dropped the bomb, and arguably because Harry Truman dropped the bomb....

George Oakes was far from alone. There were countless American boys-turned-men, husbands and dads and granddads, in the same boat.