By "progressive", I was referring to the self-described status of our education system. It is a fact that most 4-year Uni professors here have political beliefs that range all the way from from left to hard-left. I'm experiencing it now, any classes that aren't directly STEM related are as much about indoctrination as education. Their views infect what and how they teach. My views in this discussion in a US history 1112 class would likely lead to my failing it.
I think our viewpoints are irreconcilable. I'm second generation career military. My early reading was 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and the Time-Life series on WW 1 and 2. I later got into my father's books, Ghandi, Arendt, Sun Tzu, von Clausewitz and Kipling were the topic of many dinner table discussions. I've read a bit of the actual source material that your links are based on. Lengthy reading lists were part of the 4 different levels of PME I attended.
Ike went as far as he could, and lost. But that's what military leaders are supposed to do. Do what your stripes or stars can carry, pick your hill to die on, then shut up and color if/when you are overruled. History is written by the victors, true. but it also evolves over time as society changes. People in any era disagree on decisions made, especially in war. Later generations latch onto those disagreements as proof of their own thoughts. Times, morals, values change.
War is the natural extension of failed diplomacy. As long are there are humans with different ideas or ideology, there will be war. Don't misunderstand me, I was a war fighter, not a warmonger. I saw more than I wanted in '91 and didn't retire in time to avoid post 9/11. (I was retiring that December and had orders in hand when they went to stop-loss...I didn't get out until '06). The two-dollar bits of colored ribbon they pass out afterwards are expensively bought. I lost friends.
The fetishization of the military post 9/11 is sometimes hard to deal with, but people who have never seen the elephant will never understand those who have. I can't read this without crying
Let's not confuse targets with valid targets,
Civilians became valid targets in WWII the moment a lost BF-110 jettisoned bombs over London. That likely saved Britain and probably the war, because it shifted Hitlers focus. Because of the limits of air power that became evident in Europe, that didn't change between theaters. Today, with our smart bombs and GPS, drones and satellite surveillance capability, one plane with 2 250-pound bombs (with a CEP of inches) can take out a target that 500 planes with 1200 tons of bombs might have taken out then.
And when, with all our gee-whiz capabilities, we still hit a wedding instead of a high-level meet of the bad guys, it's an atrocity. And because it is so, we put that on people who didn't have those capabilities.
There were so many pressures at the end of the war. The US didn't want the Russians in Japan, it was already apparent they weren't leaving eastern Europe. They (and the western powers) were already fully mobilized for total war and geography didn't favor the west. There was a lot more real estate to push them back than there was for them to push the allies back into the Atlantic. Russia got some of Germany's rocket, and nuke program scientists , and Truman wasn't sure how far along they were. It was inevitable that Russia would have nukes, possibly soon and a nuclear stalemate would have put the allies at an impossible disadvant...
By "progressive", I was referring to the self-described status of our education system. It is a fact that most 4-year Uni professors here have political beliefs that range all the way from from left to hard-left. I'm experiencing it now, any classes that aren't directly STEM related are as much about indoctrination as education. Their views infect what and how they teach. My views in this discussion in a US history 1112 class would likely lead to my failing it.
I think our viewpoints are irreconcilable. I'm second generation career military. My early reading was 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and the Time-Life series on WW 1 and 2. I later got into my father's books, Ghandi, Arendt, Sun Tzu, von Clausewitz and Kipling were the topic of many dinner table discussions. I've read a bit of the actual source material that your links are based on. Lengthy reading lists were part of the 4 different levels of PME I attended.
Ike went as far as he could, and lost. But that's what military leaders are supposed to do. Do what your stripes or stars can carry, pick your hill to die on, then shut up and color if/when you are overruled. History is written by the victors, true. but it also evolves over time as society changes. People in any era disagree on decisions made, especially in war. Later generations latch onto those disagreements as proof of their own thoughts. Times, morals, values change.
War is the natural extension of failed diplomacy. As long are there are humans with different ideas or ideology, there will be war. Don't misunderstand me, I was a war fighter, not a warmonger. I saw more than I wanted in '91 and didn't retire in time to avoid post 9/11. (I was retiring that December and had orders in hand when they went to stop-loss...I didn't get out until '06). The two-dollar bits of colored ribbon they pass out afterwards are expensively bought. I lost friends.
The fetishization of the military post 9/11 is sometimes hard to deal with, but people who have never seen the elephant will never understand those who have. I can't read this without crying
Let's not confuse targets with valid targets,
Civilians became valid targets in WWII the moment a lost BF-110 jettisoned bombs over London. That likely saved Britain and probably the war, because it shifted Hitlers focus. Because of the limits of air power that became evident in Europe, that didn't change between theaters. Today, with our smart bombs and GPS, drones and satellite surveillance capability, one plane with 2 250-pound bombs (with a CEP of inches) can take out a target that 500 planes with 1200 tons of bombs might have taken out then.
And when, with all our gee-whiz capabilities, we still hit a wedding instead of a high-level meet of the bad guys, it's an atrocity. And because it is so, we put that on people who didn't have those capabilities.
There were so many pressures at the end of the war. The US didn't want the Russians in Japan, it was already apparent they weren't leaving eastern Europe. They (and the western powers) were already fully mobilized for total war and geography didn't favor the west. There was a lot more real estate to push them back than there was for them to push the allies back into the Atlantic. Russia got some of Germany's rocket, and nuke program scientists , and Truman wasn't sure how far along they were. It was inevitable that Russia would have nukes, possibly soon and a nuclear stalemate would have put the allies at an impossible disadvantage in the event Russia decided to take all of Europe. So demonstrating that we could drop one every three days (though we couldn't at the time) was a large factor as well, to stabilize that situation.
Allowing Hirihito to remain on the throne as a man was a minor concession. The larger one was not hanging him. Neither concession was probably necessary, but they were already looking forward to the next war, and again geography favored Russia.
Truman had political considerations as well. It's easier to kill a man if you dehumanize him first. After 3 1/2 years of propaganda about the "dirty Japs", blowing up cities with a single bomb probably bought Truman an election. He's not off any hook, but I can barely imagine the burden of his decisions.
My ears aren’t too tender to hear. We’re good, right?
Yeah, good and all,, but I *was" a little snappy. Lack of sleep and stressed trying to figure out networking and subnetting for a test.
By "progressive", I was referring to the self-described status of our education system. It is a fact that most 4-year Uni professors here have political beliefs that range all the way from from left to hard-left. I'm experiencing it now, any classes that aren't directly STEM related are as much about indoctrination as education. Their views infect what and how they teach. My views in this discussion in a US history 1112 class would likely lead to my failing it.
I think our viewpoints are irreconcilable. I'm second generation career military. My early reading was 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and the Time-Life series on WW 1 and 2. I later got into my father's books, Ghandi, Arendt, Sun Tzu, von Clausewitz and Kipling were the topic of many dinner table discussions. I've read a bit of the actual source material that your links are based on. Lengthy reading lists were part of the 4 different levels of PME I attended.
Ike went as far as he could, and lost. But that's what military leaders are supposed to do. Do what your stripes or stars can carry, pick your hill to die on, then shut up and color if/when you are overruled. History is written by the victors, true. but it also evolves over time as society changes. People in any era disagree on decisions made, especially in war. Later generations latch onto those disagreements as proof of their own thoughts. Times, morals, values change.
War is the natural extension of failed diplomacy. As long are there are humans with different ideas or ideology, there will be war. Don't misunderstand me, I was a war fighter, not a warmonger. I saw more than I wanted in '91 and didn't retire in time to avoid post 9/11. (I was retiring that December and had orders in hand when they went to stop-loss...I didn't get out until '06). The two-dollar bits of colored ribbon they pass out afterwards are expensively bought. I lost friends.
The fetishization of the military post 9/11 is sometimes hard to deal with, but people who have never seen the elephant will never understand those who have. I can't read this without crying
Civilians became valid targets in WWII the moment a lost BF-110 jettisoned bombs over London. That likely saved Britain and probably the war, because it shifted Hitlers focus. Because of the limits of air power that became evident in Europe, that didn't change between theaters. Today, with our smart bombs and GPS, drones and satellite surveillance capability, one plane with 2 250-pound bombs (with a CEP of inches) can take out a target that 500 planes with 1200 tons of bombs might have taken out then. And when, with all our gee-whiz capabilities, we still hit a wedding instead of a high-level meet of the bad guys, it's an atrocity. And because it is so, we put that on people who didn't have those capabilities.
There were so many pressures at the end of the war. The US didn't want the Russians in Japan, it was already apparent they weren't leaving eastern Europe. They (and the western powers) were already fully mobilized for total war and geography didn't favor the west. There was a lot more real estate to push them back than there was for them to push the allies back into the Atlantic. Russia got some of Germany's rocket, and nuke program scientists , and Truman wasn't sure how far along they were. It was inevitable that Russia would have nukes, possibly soon and a nuclear stalemate would have put the allies at an impossible disadvant...
Read Full