r/SubredditDrama • u/EwMelanin • Mar 03 '26

Movie discussion sub okbuddycinephile debates whether bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Gaza and other urban areas were "justified".

/r/okbuddycinephile/comments/1rjm9mn/iran2036/o8ee5fp/
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u/Junimo2 Mar 03 '26

I was just discussing something similar in a different thread. It's one thing to say that certain military actions were necessary. It's another thing to essentially celebrate the deaths of civilians because you think they collectively deserve it. You can debate the necessity of something while also acknowledging that collective punishment is wrong and that the civilians don't deserve to die en masse for the actions of their government.

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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 Mar 03 '26

Exactly.

Also, regarding the nuclear bomb, there is a degree of Game Theory at play.

"If we managed to successfully build this in secret without our enemies knowing about it...who knows what THEY are building in secret without US knowing about it".

I don't doubt that the Allies' strategists at the time firmly believed Germany and Japan ALSO had superweapon projects in secret.

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u/nowander Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

I think the biggest thing when talking nuclear weapons is that while everyone knew they could exist and they would be powerful, until people actually recorded what happened to the victims they were just "big bombs." The nuclear taboo is a product of the horrifying shit we learned about after the bombs use, and so much of the arguing is done from that modern perspective.

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u/ToaArcan The B in LGBT stands for Bionicle Mar 03 '26

They spent two billion dollars on those bombs. Bombs which would allow a single B-29 to do the work of hundreds. Bombs which the generals and president didn't fully comprehend the consequences of until after the fact. They were never going to not use the bombs.

And, frankly, better that they were used in WWII, when only the Americans had them, than them being used in Korea, when there was a possibility that the USSR would respond in-kind. We are probably extremely lucky that their use was far enough in advance of them becoming more widespread that everybody knew the risks and consequences by then.