Originally Posted by
iXenomorph
My point is not that nuclear weapons may/may not have saved lives. My point is that, if the US has used nuclear weapons, it is in absolutely no position to have any semblance of authority dictating whether or not a foreign country may or even may not bear nuclear weapons.
As for the presumption that the nuclear bombs may have prevented more deaths in an all-out war, that's basically like saying,
"As long as we assume -- with no possible way of predicting -- that less Americans will be harmed by wiping our feet on the American constitution and taking these completely innocent peoples' rights to life away -- killing them -- then its worth it to drop the bomb and blow 200,000 random people to hell. Not counting radiation poisoning/all that crap."
Yup, that is the rhetoric of "if it saves even ONE life, its worth it!" In other words, if one life will be saved by compromising everything that America stands for, the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, etc, it's worth it! If I lived in an underground prison isolated for the rest of my life, I'd be completely immune to the dangers of life in general (Vehicle accidents, drug abuse, gang fights, terrorist attacks etc etc), would that be worth it?
"I'm going to nuke the middle east!"
"What? That's crazy!?"
"But I'm preventing terrorists from killing Americans!"
"Wait, you're going to kill all middle-eastern people under the vague presumption that terrorists are all middle-eastern?"
"Yep."
"Wait, isn't that discriminatory?!"
"WHAT? If it saves even ONE LIFE, ITS WORTH IT!"
"Wait, what about the lives and freedoms of all the innocent people that you are bombing?"
"Are you saying you DON'T WANT TO SAVE THE LIVES OF INNOCENT AMERICANS? ARE YOU SOME KIND OF TERRORIST?!"
No. My resolution stands. The ends never justifies the means. Let's end all war on earth by destroying everyone that lives on Earth. With no humans, there will be no more war on Earth! Genius! Let's save American lives by nuking Japan! Let's introduce prohibition laws on alcohol!
If it saves even one life, it's worth it!
No it's not. We all know how that turned out.
That is exactly what I am saying. If you abuse drugs, do you have the authority to tell your children not to? If you are a bad parent, do you have the authority to tell your children to be a good parent? If you use nuclear weapons to kill 200,000 people under the vague presumption that you are saving American lives by shitting on the rights and freedoms of others, do you have the moral authority to tell other countries not to wield nuclear weapons?
No, you do not.