enola gay and military aviation -serious

JMO:

The Enola Gay and Bockscar are valuable in that they remind us of how any
war becomes a vicious cycle, the upgrading of weapons as the war occurs, and
the willingness of even the "good guys" to justify increased atrocities to
win that war. Atrocities by good guys often occur when the proponent
becomes frustrated and/or tired. The dropping of the bombs was not the
first of atrocities committed by the good guys in that the Brits were quite
happy to massacre German innocents to win the war. The US generally
resisted such tactics until the B-29's had difficulties in high altitude
strategic bombing over Japan. Then they turned the B-29's into dump trucks
and adopted the Brit strategy. There is no question that the Japanese and
Germans committed far worse atrocities but they were the bad guys under
anyones definition. The only legitimate military targets were industry and
military. The good guys should have stuck to that.

To me, there are good guys and bad guys, and the good guys should never
become the bad guys. The massacre of innocents is never justified if
civilization wishes to retain its values. The problem is history. I think
society eventually will look back 100 years from now and shudder at the
horror of it all and that will be the lesson of the war. Maybe it will do
some good, but it will not be a good showing for the "greatest generation"
in this regard.

I personally think we should show a picture of the bomb with the Enola Gay
as well as pictures of the women, children, and old people who were burnt
up and terribly burned by the flash and radiation. I don't think it is
something that we should be proud of. I think we should acknowledge we did
what we did. To me the dropping of nuclear bombs is similar to Dachau, it
should be preserved as a reminder of how horrible war and or racial/ethnic
hatred becomes when it is allowed full rein. Both are symbols of atrocities
committed for somewhat different reasons, but both a product of war and/or
hatred.

I don't think military aviation can be honestly discussed unless there is a
recognition that warplanes are killing machines and sometimes the killing is
justified, sometimes not, sometimes its a grey area. The use of B-29's to
bomb strategic or tactical targets was certainly justfied, the firebombing
and nukes were not, both should be acknowledged and remembered (the same
goes for the Lanc).

I think it should also be realized by the techies in the group that the
smart bombs of today, which appear to be so good at protecting innocents by
enabling the military to strike effectively at military targets, can be, if
a situation gets out of hand, be equally effective in killing innocents when
wielded by frustrated and/or tired "good guys".

Al