Allama, like I said, we have bigger street fights in L.A.
Soly, I think our main problem here is the definition of 'terrorist.' My idea of a terrorist is a person who is a member of a violent cult who committs suicide bombings through a belief that they are serving their god. We could just call them assholes, but these are peole who fight under a banner, and supposedly have religious beliefs that are 'responsible' for their actions. I wouldn't call a guy who robs a bank a terrorist, or a person who blows himself up in a crowd because he's mad at his mother. It may be a form of terror warfare, but my idea of an actual "terorist," especially in this day and age, is different. I realize that this is my own definition, and tho everyone I know pretty much agrees with it, you might consider anyone who commits a crime a terrorist, and in that case we would be talking apples and oranges.
Now, Myro, I have a hard time swallowing the fact that you can stand up and seriously say that you approve of a monarchy over any form of democracy, but your given reasons for this belief are through a hate of a majority dominating the minority... WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BRAIN, MAN???
If you think that "the little guy" doesn't get heard in a Democracy, for crying out loud, what do you think'll happen in a monarchy? There's a reason that monarchies are not alive and well today.
Myro, you said:
When you:
1. Deliberately lie about killing thousands of civilians
2. Don't act when hundreds of thousands of people are killed genocidically
it is.
Not to mention that the bombings were a war crime anyway. One, Japan was basically defeated already. Two, let's assume the Germans developed the bomb and dropped them on semi-important American cities, but later lost the war. Do you have any doubt the Germans that developed the bomb would have been called war criminals and hanged?
So, you think it's an 'atrocity' that the US didn't jump in and save the world during the Rwanda conflict? I thought everyone was complaining that the US were trying to be the "world's police"
? Do you see the hypocrisy here? We do something, we get jumped on; we don't do something, and we still get jumped on. If you think the world hates the US, you have no clue how SICK I am of hearing the rest of the world belly-ache, wine and complain. What else do you want the US to do, change your diapers???
Myro, if you think that the use of the A-bombs were unnecessary, you haven't done a very thorough study on WWII. Ever hear about Tarawa? Ever see the film clips of Japanese residents on the island throwing themselves and their childen over cliffs, to escape the "shame" of surrendering? If Japanese soldiers weren't willing to surrender when all was lost on a God-forsaken tiny sliver of sand out in the middle of the Pacific, what would we have to do to make him surrender his own homeland? Japanese records show that no one in Japan was contemplating surrender before the use of the A-bombs. Even after the two nukes were dropped, Japanese war ministers were all for going to the very end. It was only the Emperor who was unwilling to sacrifice his people's lives so needlessly, and accepted surrender. It became very clear after the war that the Japanese people were braced to go to the last man, in successive lines of defense, including the remnants of the army, old men and boys, and women and children. The Japanese people were conditioned to not accept surrender, under any circumstances. Did you ever see "The Last Samurai"? That shows some of this mentality among the Japanese. It also became clear that we saved countless Japanese lives by not invading the islands, because of their own suicidal intentions.
Furthermore, you can say that Hiroshima was not a military base. But do you know how long we had been bombing Japanese manufacturing plants, factories, bases, airfields, etc.? Their ability to wage war had ceased to exist. Yet they refused to even contemplate surrender. There was nothing LEFT to bomb in Japan. Hiroshima was a large economic center of Japan, and therefore, the foremost "military" target. The same with Nagasaki.
EDIT: Allama, I am not trying to condone any war crime committed by Israel. And I do know that Israel has done some pretty horrific things. However, the only reason I'm providing their defense, is that your reasons for choosing to find fault with Israel over its enemies, who also committed warcrimes, appall me.