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This is actually a point I like to make a lot; people are often too willing to ignore the past and its lessons when dealing with the future. At the same time, though, contemporary realities have to be included in context. We could look at much more recent history, the Vietnam War, and draw conclusions that you cannot 'force democracy' on a people successfully. Now there are differences between Iraq and Vietnam... but I believe these conflicts are probably closer in nature, scope, and relevance, than any WWII examples. More has happened in the previous 60 years technology/development-wise than any period in history. Things are fundamentally different today, comparisons with 40's Japan and Germany are tough. But obviously a difficult point to debate, given that we'll never know.
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Yep, the lessons of history. How many times do we forget about them?
I agree 100%.
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Pretty far. And this viewpoint is a fairly commonly held one - that the US saved US lives by using the A-bomb rather than invading. For all I know its the truth, but when I look at the dire situation in Japan, I can't fathom how much longer the resistance would continue while A) Japan was entirely cut off from resources, B) Japan had already lost millions of its most able soldiers, C) Japan was on fire.
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I would go pretty far too.
But, what you're saying is that the US/Allies could have continued their "siege" and eventually Japan would have given up?
I understand your viewpoint, but like the situation in Iraq, I'm sure there were people calling for the brutal war to end.