The Stats Don't Lie!!!!!

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Robert McNamara was a very well educated Statesman and a patriot. During his military years and years as Secretary of Defense he had an extraordinary ability to quantify everything through statistics. When faced with tough decisions he would turn to the numbers and charts. His critics would say that he was evil for looking at people as numbers, but this was his method. His ability to draw on math to make calculated decisions without incorporating human emotions does seem cold, but rational. I support what McNamara did for the United States.

In his later years, which always seems to be the case, McNamara reflected on the decisions he had made for the defense of our country and felt he had to explain is rational for vindication. After I watched the Fog of War, I felt that he was not a cold man. I concluded that he was a brilliant mathematician that had a talent for saving American lives.   

   





The Hiroshima Suckfest!!!!!

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As I stated in class on Wednesday, “the book Hiroshima made me very angry.” There is no doubt in my mind that it was a well written piece of literature, from the enemy’s perspective. What angered me about the book was the sense of guilt that it made me feel and the feeling of sympathy for the Japanese civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As I read about the suffering of the people, the censorship of the American and Japanese governments I felt bad. This feeling of guilt and sympathy quickly subsided and I grew angry at myself. They were not victims they were the aggressors, I have stated that before. If I were looking to feel bad I would think about the families of the 2,402 Americans killed on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Japanese should not be pitied for the bombings. We were at war, people die. That is war!

 



Mission First!!!

 

On August 6, 1945 the crew of a B-29 bomber the Enola Gay had a mission to accomplish and they executed it with professionalism, courage and precision. At 8:15 in the morning, Hiroshima time their mission introduced the world to nuclear weapons and the devastating power they unleash.  As airmen, the crew was flying thousands of feet over the target they were tasked to destroy, which removed the “personal element” of killing the enemy. In Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, he describes how distance from your enemy plays a role in coping mentally with what you have done. According to Grossman’s theory, the further you are from seeing the enemy die, the less personal the act is, the easier it is to cope.

 

 

On May 11, 1955, This is Your Life, a live broadcasted television program, introduced the co-pilot of the Enola Gay Robert L. Lewis to a survivor from Hiroshima, Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Lewis was an emotional wreck, the comfort of distance was removed and it is apparent when you view the show that he is horrified by what he participated in. Lewis’ emotional statement, “My God, what have we done?” demonstrates the amount of remorse that man was living with. I would never have agreed to go on that show. I hope Lewis gained some sense of comfort from that experience.   

 

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