Aug. 6 is truly a dark day in history

Sixty-two years ago today, our country unleashed the most lethal killing device known to man at the time - the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I have to admit that I get annoyed whenever the anniversary rolls around, and the history revisionists simply claim, "We should not have dropped the bomb." It's a debate that will undoubtedly outlive me if I live to be 100.

What people forget is that it's very hard to recreate the atmosphere and thinking that existed at the time. To me, all discussion on that time and that war should keep that in mind. Unless you lived it, and fewer and fewer of the people who actually did are with us to bear witness, I believe it's more difficult to accurately convey what World War II was like. The Japanese attacked us, and brought war to our shores. Even worse, they were going to fight to the death had we invaded their homeland.

People seem to forget perspective on the war, however. We killed more people during the firebombing of Tokyo and the bombing of Dresden, but that hardly ever gets any mention, because the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was accomplished with one bomb. In the end, while both events were tragedies for the people of Japan, I believe they both saved many lives on both sides, and ultimately they helped bring to an end a brutal war that killed over 30 million people.

August 6 is also infamous for another reason - this is the date, six years ago, that President Bush received his Presidential Daily Briefing while on vacation in Crawford, Texas "ranch" entitled, "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Were the plans for 9-11 too far along to have been thwarted, even if Bush had taken steps to prevent it? We'll never know, but what we do know is that the president did. ... Nothing.

I just finished reading two books that deal in part with 9-11 specifically and what the intelligence community knew prior to 9-11. It's sad and tragic that we had the raw data that could have thwarted the attacks, yet our intelligence community was too slow, unresponsive and unprepared to effectively deal with the threat.

Of course, I don't place blame for all of these problems squarely on Bush's shoulders, either. That would be myopic and partisan; the intelligence community had atrophied for years if not decades.

What I blame Bush for was again, doing nothing.

We really won't forget.

Bottom photo via Mock, Paper, Scissors

What a day in history

Every once in a while, just by crazy coincidence, certain dates go down in history as watershed dates. Clearly, July 16 is one of those days, and I'm only talking about in the last 62 years.

Sixty-two years ago today, in the pre-dawn hours at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, the first nuclear bomb in history was detonated. (Above, one of the few color photographs that exists of the explosion.) It was the culmination of the Manhattan Project. Less than three weeks later, the first atomic bomb was dropped on a nation at Hiroshima, Japan, and the world has never been the same, nor will it ever be.

To me, the Trinity Test was the single biggest event of the 20th Century - it ended World War II, saving many lives, and the nuclear age was spawned. The second biggest event of the 20th Century was the Space Race, culminating with Apollo 11, which launched on this day in 1969 (Below).

When Neil Armstrong stepped off the ladder of Eagle four days later, becoming the first human to set foot on another world, humankind was changed forever. I wish I would have been alive and old enough to witness Apollo 11 and the subsequent moon landings. I'm thrilled that we are going back, and I hope I live to see the day we walk on Mars.

As I mentioned before, I believe the two biggest events of the 20th Century were World War II and man setting foot on the moon. It's also sort of funny that these two watershed events share another important date, coming up this Friday: July 20. That's when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and when the German resistance tried to kill Adolf Hitler. These are world-changing events for another reason - think for a moment if both of these events had turned out differently: Apollo 11 tragically fails, and the plot to kill Hitler succeeds; we've be living in possibly a very different world today.

Anyway, I'll write more about July 20 later in the week. Just thought I'd pause today and observe these two dramatic events.

Hitler Youth selling VO5?

Some will call me a politically correct, liberal nut when they read what I think after seeing this ad, and I don't care.

This commercial is stupid, mindless and it's a short sighted attempt to sell VO5 products.

I never cease to be amazed when mindless ads like this one hit the airwaves. When I first saw this tonight, I rewound it on our DVR to watch it again because I thought my eyes had deceived me. They hadn't.

The unfortunate symbolism in this ad is so obvious - you'd have to have zero knowledge of World War II to miss it. The ad gave me these two thoughts:

First, which ad agency thought this was a good idea? Talk about narrow-minded stupidity.

Second, the company that manufactures and distributes VO5, Alberto-Culver, should know better than to green light an ad like this.

What's next - going to Hiroshima, Japan to release the next version of Duke Nukem, the popular video game?

How people quickly forget that the Holocaust occurred less than 70 years ago. That's NOT a long time. (The 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army on January 27th, 1945, is next week.)

Alberto-Culver should know better, and victims and descendants of Nazi oppression deserve better.

Think I'm reaching? Does anyone remember the Starbucks ad (left) that the company pulled not long after 9-11? Many felt it rang a little too close to 9-11, with the bug diving into the drinks. Look at the ad for yourself (I know, it's hard to see, but this was the best copy of it I could find.)

And honestly, the VO5 ad is a lot worse than the Starbucks ad.

Just because 9-11 was five years ago and the Holocaust was nearly 70 years ago doesn't make the VO5 ad any less outrageous.
I understand that imperfect people make these ads, but the VO5 ad is so blatantly stupid, it just shows a profound lack of common sense and sensitivity.

I'm curious to see if there will be any sort of controversy in the US from this ad. I found it on YouTube, and evidently, it appeared in the UK before it did here. Stay tuned on this one.

Worth a look: The Fog of War

The War in Iraq has been on my mind a lot today for some reason - I guess it's because it's all over the news. It got to me thinking about a stunningly insightful film I saw a few months ago - The Fog of War. Normally, I only bring you movie trailers about current or recently released films, but I decided to post this one because it relates so well to Iraq. It's an amazing film, centered on Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who served in that capacity under JFK's entire administration and nearly all of Lyndon Johnson's.

A brilliant man, McNamara's arrogance and hubris got the best of him, his president, his nation, and the lives of thousands of young American men who died in Vietnam, over a civil war that we had no business butting our noses into. But, under the guise of fighting the Cold War, that's precisely what we did.

Sound familiar? Just substitute Donald Rumsfeld for McNamara, Iraq for Vietnam, and War on Terror for Cold War, and you could shoot another documentary, with the cooperation of Rumsfeld. Of course, you have a better chance of President Bush resigning than getting Rumsfeld to admit a mistake.

Anyway, the film is absolutely apropos to contemporary thinking about American military might and our disastrous foray into Iraq, all in the name of fighting terror and spreading Democracy.

The film is excellent for other reasons, too. McNamara takes the viewer on a historic tour of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and of course, Vietnam. It's very instructive about the perils of glorifying war, which America has a monopoly on.



And I couldn't resist to bring you one more clip from the movie - it's McNamara's take on the nuclear bombing of Japan. I'm not sure I totally agree, but he's got a whole lot more expertise on the subject than I could ever dream of. Regardless of your point of view, it is thought provoking.

After watching it, still think war is all glory? I sure as hell hope not. Japan had it coming, no question, and in the end, I think dropping the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right decision, because Japan wasn't going to surrender unless it was absolutely forced to do so. However, the firebombing of Tokyo, killing 100,000 civilians? I'm not sold on that one. McNamara offers up a stunner at the end of this clip, saying Curtis LeMay thought American generals would have been prosecuted as war criminals had we lost the war. Wow.

My point in bringing this up now is that war should absolutely be the last resort, not the first one. World War II had to be fought. Iraq did not and does not.