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8 days agoGenuine question: before today, had you ever heard of the take that the US didnt need to nuke Japan - given Soviet advancements and Japan’s military crumbling?
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They could be dialed down lower, but even a “small” tactical nuke is bigger than what got dropped on Japan.
It’s not about size, it’s how you use it. For example, a tactical nuke could potentially be used at sea to destroy a fleet. Depending on where the fleet is, this could potentially be done with no direct civilian casualties.
And I have no idea what you’re second rambling source is trying to say.
Really? It’s pretty clear cut: the Americans dropped the nuke to primarily rule out Soviet influence as opposed to being a decisive means to end the war. This isn’t even a fringe opinion among historians these days - I’m surprised you haven’t heard this take.
Militarily Japan was finished (as the Soviet invasion of Manchuria that August showed). Further blockade and urban destruction would have produced a surrender in August or September at the latest, without the need for the costly anticipated invasion or the atomic bomb. As for the second bomb on Nagasaki, that was just as unnecessary as the first one. It was deemed to be needed, partly because it was a different design, and the military (and many civilian scientists) were keen to see if they both worked the same way. There was, in other words, a cynical scientific imperative at work as well.
I should also add that there was a fine line between the atomic bomb and conventional bombing – indeed descriptions of Hamburg or Tokyo after conventional bombing echo the aftermath of Hiroshima. To regard Hiroshima as a moral violation is also to condemn the firebombing campaign, which was deliberately aimed at city centres and completely indiscriminate.
There’s no other way to use a nuke, they cover too wide an area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_nuclear_weapon
Like, if the nukes on Japan wouldn’t have been dropped, it would have had to be more firebombing and then a ground invasion.
The nuclear strikes on Japan represented a political decision taken by the United States, aimed squarely at the Soviet Union; it was the first strike in the Cold War.
In August 1945, the USSR was preparing to invade Japan to overthrow its ruling fascist regime, which had been allied with Nazi Germany – which the Soviet Red Army had also just defeated in the European theater of the war.
Washington was concerned that, if the Soviets defeated Japanese fascism and liberated Tokyo like they had in Berlin, then Japan’s post-fascist government could become an ally of the Soviet Union and could adopt a socialist government.
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, therefore, were not so much aimed at the Japanese fascists as they were aimed at the Soviet communists.
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/08/07/atomic-bombing-japan-not-necessary/
Blumaga: “American meddling in the Middle East is a new phenomenon that was invented solely by Republicans”
I’m sorry, the files will come out, there will be an uprising and he will be removed. And that will only be the start. You can screenshot your comment to show to your grandkids.
- 4 mo ago
Lmao, OP, I am once again asking you to drop evidence of a Uyghur grnocide that does not immediately recycle Radio Free Asia or Adrien Zenz talking points.
If you actually read this “new” report, youll find there is very little new content - aside from whatever new pieces RFA has put out this year.
At this point, you can look at the sources for this “new” article and notice it leans HEAVILY on another report from Rian Thum
And what happens if we look at this reports references?
Just more circular references to Zenz.
(This one is especially funny, because in the intro, they talk all high and mighty about how their ONLY sources are primary Chinese documents from the state, or leaks from the state. And in the footnote, they basically say “yeah we cant read this, so see what our buddy Zenz had to say about it” despite the fact that that Zenz doesnt speak Chinese. The same Zenz who says Hitler had good ideas on population control, by the way)
This OP is draped in congressional language, and its got the length to boot… But this is not a new report. This is not even an investigation. This is essentially the US government dropping a summary of all of their new RFA pieces that have dropped this year. I encourage anyone lookin at these reports to be critical of RFA and Zenz. Having an ounce of skepticism will immediately reveal that the vast majority of the times, these China hit pieces on Uyghurs are just circular references of Zenz and RFA.
So what are you arguing? That Cuba isn’t socialist or that they aren’t “successful”?
What if the vast majority of Ukrainians had an interest in ending the war via negotiations, or even to cede land? Would you still stand with Ukrainians?
Do you two think that being a asset/,spy/double agent means you also don’t do things to make you look less suspicious?
Why would Trump/Putin be afraid of looking suspicious? I thought yalls whole thing was that Trump’s status as a Russian spy is clear as day and known to all.
because it is easier to disturb operations from within the organisation.
And what disturbances do you mean? NATO spending has exploded in recent years. Last year NATO allies increased spending by 18%. Why would a Russian asset set about a plan that drastically increases the funding for Russia’s primary enemy? Why is Trump’s whole schtick that Europe needs to start spending more on defense?
Why would Putin kick off the Ukraine war immediately after his “agent” leaves office?
Why, in his first term, was Trump commanding Germany and EU to stop buying Russian gas? Going so far as to sanction comoanies involved with the Nordstream pipeline?
Meanwhile, in 2018, the US expelled more than 60 Russian officials after identifying them as intelligence officers. To put it bluntly, any gains Russia might have achieved through Trump’s good offices are far outweighed by the strategic, economic, and counterintelligence realities that have emerged during his presidency.
But any Russian intelligence officer would need to consider whether Trump really cares enough about kompromat and Russian money. Indeed, why enrol him as an agent of influence – a move that carries enormous consequences for both parties – when Russia could opt for a convenient friend in Washington?
In reality, even if Russia sees Trump as an asset, we’re not talking about Trump being a new Kim Philby (of Cambridge Five fame). We’re talking about Trump being a self-interested businessman who’s happy to do a favour if it works to his own best interests – and that includes staying out of jail. There’s no evidence that Trump knowingly associated with any Russian intelligence officers. And there’s a big distinction between making the wrong kind of friends and committing treason.
https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2021/02/title-240459-en.html
Collusion/conspiracy/coordinate… just semantics.
[Mueller] did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
Trump is not a Russian asset. He’s an easily-manipulated businessman who does things in his own self interest, and that is as American as apple pie. There is no need to invoke Putin. Our descent into Christian Fascism is our own doing - one that Russia no doubt took advantage of. If you truly believe Trump is a Russian asset, then you have to concede that the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the Five Eyes have all been captured by Russia as well.
If Trump is a Russian asset, why didnt the US pull out of NATO months ago? Why did Mueller’s report conclude that there was no collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia?
If Russia is blamed for Trump’s election, we avoid the unpleasant reality of our failed democratic institutions and decaying empire. We avoid facing the inevitable rise of a Christianised fascism borne out of widespread impoverishment, rage, despair and abandonment. We avoid acknowledging the complicity of the Democratic Party in the orchestration of the largest social inequality in our nation’s history, the evisceration of our basic civil liberties, endless wars and an electoral system bankrolled by the billionaire class, which is legalised bribery. The myth allows us to believe that Democratic politicians, like the establishment Republicans who have joined them, are the guarantors of a democracy they destroyed.
All the investigations into Trump’s ties with Russia are unequivocal. There was no collusion. The Steele dossier, financed at first by Republican opponents of Trump and later by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and compiled by former MI6 British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, was a fake. The charges in the dossier — which included reports of Trump receiving a ‘golden shower’ from prostituted women in a Moscow hotel room and claims that Trump and the Kremlin had ties going back five years — were discredited by the FBI. Sources, including the one that claimed Trump had long-held ties to the Kremlin, turned out to be fabricated. Special Counsel Robert S Mueller concluded that his investigation ‘did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.’ Mueller did not indict or accuse anyone of criminally conspiring with Russia.
- Chris Hedges
4·4 months ago
ample evidence
a single, one minute facebook Radio Free Asia Clip
Utterly laughable. Try harder. This is “ample evidence” to you?
I think you might start getting flustered looking for more evidence as you realize that all of these ample “sources” cite this 1 minute RFA clip.
There is ample evidence for this.
Please share the ample evidence of the operation purportedly being carried out by Chinese officials to increase their lifespan to 150 years.
Search bubble? I get pages of results.
Please share your sources since they are so ample.
[you are] posting exclusively propaganda sources
The Western media narrative is, “China’s Xinjiang policy has included intrusive surveillance, religious restrictions, the destruction of mosques, arbitrary arrests, and the detention of an estimated 1.8 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in a vast network of internment camps and prisons. Some have been subjected to sexual assaults, forced labor, and forced sterilizations.”
In order to counter this narrative an Islamic delegation that compromised of members from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina visited the Xingjiang region.
Dr. Osama Sayyid Al Azhari, the Egyptian President’s Advisor on Religious Affairs said “I believe that this visit demonstrates that China has attached great significance to preserving the ethnic culture with racial distinctions of many nationalities in Xinjiang province.”
Dr. Mustafa Ceric, former Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina said “What we’ve heard outside China surely has a bias. I’d say Muslim communities in China include more than Uygurs and there’re more than ten Muslim groups such as Hui and Mongolian and others in the region.”
The three sources you posted are all the same. They all come from the ICIJ report - whose contents was originally shared by Adrien Zenz. You know, the Christian Findamentalist who said Hitler was an effective crime fighter? It’s laughable with all of these anti China hit pieces. You never need to go more than one or two sources back before youre hitting radio free Asia or adrien zenz. What you assumed were three sources was actually the same regurgitated slop that’s been juggled between sources for the past 5 years.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202509/1342692.shtml
GT: You visited China’s Xinjiang region in 2019, 2023 and again this August. Looking back, how would you compare your impressions from these trips? What changes stood out to you most in terms of development and social stability?
Al Nuaimi: In all three visits I met officials, community representatives, religious leaders, and visited mosques and families, especially during the first trip. I see progress, I see real development. The government has a plan for reducing poverty, and I witnessed the results on the ground, not just what officials told me.
It’s important to appreciate this achievement, to acknowledge it and to show the world that while many countries face challenges, in China, especially in this region, there has been remarkable progress. People outside China cannot imagine the lifestyle here or the services provided to the people of Xinjiang.
https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/xw/wjbxw/202405/t20240530_11343216.html
It is especially strange how the article pushes this conspiracy theory
However, he claimed, the overall practice is driven by a programme called Project 981, which aims to increase the life expectancy of CCP leaders to 150 years and includes free access to organ transplants. “It explains why this hideous crime exists and why it is flourishing. It needs to flourish so the leaders will have a pool of organs to choose from.”
I found one single reference to a “project 981” on the internet, and it comes back to a Radio Free source. Laughable conspiracy theories with zero backing. Par for the course for these anti China hit pieces.
they’re talking out their ass.
Yes, which is par for the course.
What is behind the inconsistencies?
Cash payments in return for interviews with North Korean refugees have been standard practice in the field for years.
Initially, the payment was to cover the cost of meals and local transport, which was approximately $30 in the late 1990s when I first began interviewing in China and South Korea. However, the fees had risen to $200 per hour by the time I attempted to interview people from North Korea in May 2014.
A government official from the South Korean ministry of unification told me the range of fees could vary wildly, from $50-500 per hour, depending on the quality of information.
But this practice raises a difficulty: how does the payment change the relation between a researcher and an interviewee, and what effect will it have on the story itself?
The US slaughtered 20% of the country’s people. “Invasion” is putting it lightly.