ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style3 { height: 68px; } .MsoNormal {} h1 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style4 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial; } .style6 { height: 69px; } h2 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style7 { width: 285px; } .style8 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } .style9 { font-size: small; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> &nbsp;<table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr> <td height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style7"> <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140" class="style6"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" class="style6"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="624" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style3"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td height="2" class="style7"></td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style4">Hiroshima and Nagasaki Call to Obama</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curt</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>is<a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright August 7, 2010<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="style8">C</span>ommemorating the Aug. 6, 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima that accelerated the end of WWII, Japanese officials asked that U.S. help mark the 65th anniversary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Survivors of the blast that killed up to 140,000 people asked that President Barack Obama attend the solemn event in  Peace Memorial Park, close to  ground zero where the 9,700-pound uranium bomb named  Little Boy decimated one of Japan s major industrial centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Because Barack received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, survivors hoped that the 49-year-old president would continue calls for nuclear disarmament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I admire his position of aiming to abolish nuclear weapons, said 79-year-old atomic bomb survivor Akihiro Takahashi, former head of the Hiroshima s Peace Memorial museum, requesting Obama s presence with a series of letters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Still a sore subject, the U.S. bombing stirs raw emotion.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Imperial Japan continued its suicidal war until the U.S. followed up Hiroshima with the Aug. 9, 1945 atomic bombing in Southern Japan of Nagasaki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Some people want to ask for an apology, but I do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>I think there will be no peace where there is hatred, said Takahashi, not seeing the irony of the Japanese unconditional surrender Aug. 15, 1945.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Without the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there s no way to estimate how long the war in the Pacific would have lasted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Japanese soldiers, led by the Emperor Hirohito, were prepared to fight an endless bloody guerrilla war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Former President Harry Truman ordered the world s only nuclear attack to finally end the war in the Pacific.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While there are certainly differences between today s nuclear-armed world and 1945, Iran s march toward its first A-bomb raises the high stakes of state-sponsored nuclear terrorism.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Since the Soviets tested its first nuclear bomb in 1949, the U.S and Russia have lived under the threat of  mutual assured destruction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Deterrence became the name applied to the idea of  mutual assured destruction, forcing the U.S. and Soviets to show military restraint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Witnessing the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki affected American writers, believing the world faced nuclear annihilation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While the world faced extinction, early beat writers like Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg and William Borroughs were affected by the unthinkable prospects of nuclear war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Escalating nuclear arms race between the Soviets and U.S. culminated with former President John F. Kennedy during the Nov. 20, 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, where he forced the Soviets to back down installing ICBMs in Cuba.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Today s nuclear standoff with Iran promises to invite military confrontation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Escalating arms races following WW II caused what s become known as  nuclearism, the philosophical, political and emotional preoccupation with nuclear annihilation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Writers like Robert J. Lifton called A-bombs  indefensible weapons, describing unintended consequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused social and medical scientists to study closely the lasting societal damage from atomic weapons and nuclear fallout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The only way to ensure [nuclear] weapons will never be used is to eliminate them all, said U.S. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, after meeting with survivors in Nagasaki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Ban knows that in today s world of potential nuclear terrorism, nuclear weapons serve as a deterrent against more conventional kinds of aggression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since the nuclear age erupted in 1945, not one atomic-armed nation has used A-bombs other than the U.S.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Since no U.S. president has attended yearly commemorations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it would be a welcomed gesture by Obama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Generations of U.S. researchers, supported by government and private grants, have studied devastating consequences of nuclear war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Entire institutions are committed to study ways to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> That would be a wonderful opportunity to really jumpstart this process more aggressively than he [Obama] has, said American University in Washington political science professor Peter Kuznick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Using Hiroshima or Nagasaki as a backdrop, Obama could burnish his image as a global<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>peacemaker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Faced with ugly prospects before the midterm elections, the president needs any kind of boost to his image and credibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nuclear issues loom large in today s dangerous world with Iran getting closer to joining the atomic club.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>President Obama has a rare opportunity at international diplomacy attending commemorations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With the Gulf oil disaster under wraps, Barack has a golden chance to score some points on nuclear diplomacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Recent U.N. sanctions against Iran underscore the need for more disarmament talks and more work on nuclear nonproliferation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>  The visit will provide fodder for the administration s domestic critics, who will to try to frame it as apology diplomacy, said Daniel M. Kilman with the liberal Washington-based Center for a New American Security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Going to Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be an act of great political courage Obama needs to stem his current political death by a thousand cuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>His critics pray that the 49-year-old president forgets to use his God-given charisma that rocketed him into the Oval Office and top spot on the world stage.</p> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="style9">About the Author</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="style8">&nbsp; </span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b>John M. Curtis </b>writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He&#x2019;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style7"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td height="1" class="style7"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homecobolos> p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>