"...a time for war, a time for peace." That is the truth, but it's impossible for human beings to make perfect decisions. We will always fall short. Truman probably made the right call by dropping the bombs but I certainly wouldn't want to be the one making that decision. Life and leadership is filled with nearly impossible decisions, that nonetheless have to be made.
The fighting in the Pacific was some of the most horrendous fighting in the history of war. It's hard to imagine how horrific a full scale invasion of Japan would have been. The Japanese leadership was willing to risk the lives of their entire country to stay in power and grasp onto their own imperial holdings.
Jon Hersey's book "Hiroshima" is a heart wrenching account of the tragedy. Similarly "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang is one of the most difficult books I have ever read. These books don't even touch on the horrible atrocities committed by the Nazis. All-in-all WWII was a nearly apocalyptic and unimaginable explosion it human suffering.
To that end foreign policy, the decisions we make as nations should be to avoid another world war. Sometimes that means making difficult decisions where people will suffer. The end result though should always be to avoid another world war. There should be no appeasing aggressive rogue states. Leading up to WWII many world leaders thought it was a time for peace, and it wasn't. It was a time for war. The longer it took to hold Germany and Japan to account the more humanity paid the price.
Not every decision can be made with pure black and white clarity. Not every decision is easy. We can do our best and still fail. It's a humbling thing to be faced with this. It does seep into our personal lives, when we have to make humbling imperfect decisions, and just have to hope we are right.
"...a time for war, a time for peace." That is the truth, but it's impossible for human beings to make perfect decisions. We will always fall short. Truman probably made the right call by dropping the bombs but I certainly wouldn't want to be the one making that decision. Life and leadership is filled with nearly impossible decisions, that nonetheless have to be made.
The fighting in the Pacific was some of the most horrendous fighting in the history of war. It's hard to imagine how horrific a full scale invasion of Japan would have been. The Japanese leadership was willing to risk the lives of their entire country to stay in power and grasp onto their own imperial holdings.
Jon Hersey's book "Hiroshima" is a heart wrenching account of the tragedy. Similarly "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang is one of the most difficult books I have ever read. These books don't even touch on the horrible atrocities committed by the Nazis. All-in-all WWII was a nearly apocalyptic and unimaginable explosion it human suffering.
To that end foreign policy, the decisions we make as nations should be to avoid another world war. Sometimes that means making difficult decisions where people will suffer. The end result though should always be to avoid another world war. There should be no appeasing aggressive rogue states. Leading up to WWII many world leaders thought it was a time for peace, and it wasn't. It was a time for war. The longer it took to hold Germany and Japan to account the more humanity paid the price.
Not every decision can be made with pure black and white clarity. Not every decision is easy. We can do our best and still fail. It's a humbling thing to be faced with this. It does seep into our personal lives, when we have to make humbling imperfect decisions, and just have to hope we are right.
Well said. Thank you.