"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
Peter Aitken wrote:

You and others are missing the point. If the B-29 is a "magnificent
technological achievement" fine, display one. But why does it have to be
the
Enola Gay? That specific plane is unavoidable associated with dropping
the
A-bomb on a civilian target with all the resulting horrors. You may
support
the dropping of the bomb or you may be against it, but there's no
denying
that displaying *this* B-29 rather than another one makes the exhibit
seem
like a celebration of the bombing rather than the bomber. No matter how
necessary and justified you think the bombing was, it is nothing to
celebrate.

Well there aren't lots of B-29s floating around these days. It's not
so easy to just "grab one" for a display.

Most importantly, the Enola Gay is an historic aircraft, and the
Smithsonian "Air and Space *Museum*" is a *museum*! It's a very
good example of a B-29 to be displayed!

If you want to think of the display as a "celebration" of nuclear
murder of innocents, feel free to think so. If someone else wants
to think of the aircraft as a pristine example of the height of
propeller driven bomber technology *ever*, then let them.

Despite what you may possibly think, the government is not monitoring
your thoughts while you peruse the Udvar-Hazy facility displays...

Well...actually it is supposed to be state of the art. Maybe those
sneaky CIA/NSA types snuck someone into the construction crews and...

I think the story could be told, with the final sentence containing, "and it
was a very bad thing". I think we can all agree that the millions killed in
WWII was all a bad thing.