Debate: Can we achieve peace through war?
Side: No

According to R C Smith, the author of "Violence, Politics and Morality,"Oh, so that qualifies your opinion? It was stated in a book so that means its right, is that it?When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the Japanese surrendered, the proportionality principle of the "Just War" tradition was indeed met.Proportionality in international law posits that the predicted damage to civilian life or property must be proportionate to the desired military advantage and that that predicted damage to civilians is not to be excessive in attaining the military mission.Not only were there numerous military leaders and scientists who worked on the bomb research who strongly opposed the use of the bombs, but considering the bombs were never used on civilians before, no amount of civilian loss would have been clearly predicted in order to determine if it was proportionate to the US military advantage. Even if the amount of civilian loss was clearly predicted, it would have been shown to be RIDICULOUSLY excessive in gaining the military advantage. The US department of energy estimated that about 70,000 civilians died immediately after the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima alone. By the end of that year, another 20-96,000 who survived the initial blast was estimated to have died from severe injuries and radiation sickness. But wait, over the past fifty years, out of an annual average of 94 leukemia deaths, only half are from actual survivors of the event, the other half were born AFTER the bombs were dropped. The amount of civilian CIVILIAN life lost and civilian property damage far outweighs the military advantage gained especially considering my next point. There were several US military leaders who stated that the use of the bombs was not necessary because Japan was already essentially defeated during the battle of midway six months after the attack at Pearl Harbor. After putting up a successful blockade, we were able to defeat the Japanese Imperial Navy, and without their navy, the Japanese were no longer a threat to American soil. I am active duty Navy and I was stationed in Japan for three and a half years, and whether or not you feel that should qualify me for anything, one thing certain is that the first few years of my enlistment has provided a lot of basic military knowledge and my time in Japan (the people there love America by the way regardless of our past) and seeing the museums and reading about the history of the event has taught me a lot. The use of the bombs on Japan was wrong for many reasons.1. The principle of proportionality in international law was not met, as I stated above. 2. Was incredibly immoral considering the amount of human lives loss regardless of what side they were on, and also the fact that they were not military members actively engaging in warfare but innocent civilians.3. The dropping of the bombs on Japanese homeland with the goal to incite fear in their government to immediately get what we wanted is by definition, an act of terrorism.4. Was considered to be unnecessary by several US military leaders: Gen. Douglas McArthur, Brig. Gen. Carter Clarke, Fleet Adms. William Leahy and Chester Nimitz to name a few.If any other country dropped those bombs, especially if the bombs were dropped on American soil, you know damn well the ‘police of the world’ would be out there declaring it as a war crime and as being unjustified. I agree with his viewThat’s nice. An argument contains a reason for the audience to agree with your view, a premise. Saying that you agree with some guy’s book doesn’t give the audience any reason to agree with your position. Maybe you could take it up with him if you are going to throw around accusations about "smoking."All you’re implying here is that you are not prepared to defend your argument and you’d rather me debate the person from where you originally gained your miniscule understanding of the topic. Why would I do that? You originally stated your position without any regard to basing it off of some other guy’s opinion, so I will take it up with you.