... To Do Whatever It Takes!

Sixty years ago today, the US bombed the living daylights out of Japan with the first ever atomic bomb drop. They still did not give up. Three days later, the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Then they gave up.

The crew of the Enola Gay was not instructed to try to miss all temples, schools and hospitals. For that would have gone against the point of the raid. The point was to kill as many Japanese civilians as we possibly could with one blow. It was thought such devastation would shock the Japanese into surrender. It did not. 140,000 Japanese men, women, and children were blown to bits on that fateful morning. Still the Japanese High Command and the Japanese Emperor would not give the command to surrender.

The last bomb we had in our arsenal was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese did not know it was the last one. Just the thought of more atomic bombs being dropped on their sacred land brought the war home to them as nothing else could.

Earlier, US warplanes had killed far more Japanese in the firebombing of Tokyo than were killed in the blast at Hiroshima. But it took the awful devastation of two atomic bombs to bring the dedicated Japanese warriors to the decks of the USS Missouri to sign the articles of surrender. Such was the single-minded dedication to the honor of their country.

Estimates of one million casualties would have been suffered by American troops if we had, indeed, invaded the home islands of Japan. But, that was exactly what we were about to do.

You see… this was a time in American history when Americans did not second-guess their right to live free. This was a time when Americans would do whatever it took to keep their freedom and to ensure the safety of their families in the States. The key phrase in the previous sentence is “Whatever it took”. It took two atomic bombs and the killing of approximately quarter million men women, and children to gain victory over the Japanese and bring peace to our world again.

The Japanese wanted a war with the US. To ensure they got that war, they brought the war to us on Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941. On August 6th, 1945 we took the war to them.

Here we are 60 years later and another, much lesser entity has brought another war to the US. A war we did not seek, did not want. But we have it never the less.

They took down two buildings… we took down two countries. But the war goes on. Why? Because we do not have the will to do whatever it takes to win. As a result out military men and women are being ground up in a meat grinder of homemade bombs and hit and run tactics while our troops stand by awaiting the order to do what it takes to clean that mess up in Iraq.

The war in Iraq could be over in days. But, not without a Commander-in-Chief,, and a Congress, with the fortitude to give the order.

President Harry Truman did, and I shall be forever grateful.

“Longstreet”