Seeing as its the 60th anniversary of us dropping nukes on Japan I have been thinking a bit about it. At the time the Japanese were hellbent on winning and would have died to the last man if they had to in order to achieve their objective. Thinking about the sheer number of civilians and military that died that day anybody with a heart would feel their heart sink to their feet. On the other hand -

1. We ended WWII doing this
2. Had we invaded Japan even more Japanese and Americans would have died, so therefore the least amount of people died doing it this way
3. People saw the horror of the atom bomb - as a result its never been used since
4. We rebuilt Japan and it became a democracy

The "Mutially Assured Destruction" principle protects us so far, and although I would like to see the eradication of the nuclear bomb... reality dictates that this will never, ever happen. Wars are going to happen - its our nature as human beings. I just hope that nobody ever has to suffer like that again - both the people who die and the people who execute their mission and have to live with the burden for the rest of their lives.