Don't say sorry, Mr. President, it makes you look even soppier!

Rumour has it that 'Mr. Gobby', the current POTUS, intends to come over here and tell us that we should stay inside the EU to which one can only respond by saying that we might consider your, er, advice, Mr. President, if and when you declare that the USA is going to join a new union of Mexico, Canada and the USA - and no, Mr. President, we are not holding our breath!

And whilst I am on the subject of your ever-open mouth, Mr. President, I strongly urge you to shut it before, during and after your visit to Japan where, rumour has it, you intend to apologise to the Japanese for your predecessor's wise but tough decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  If you do so, it will simply confirm your total ignorance of history and grand strategy.

As Mr. Victor Davis Hanson reminds us at The National Review, no-one is certain exactly how many Japanese died in those two atomic attacks but estimates put it at around 140,ooo.  However, even more Japanese military and civilians were killed during the battle for Okinawa where the Japanese High Command imposed a fanatical suicide defence policy including drafted civilians.  More to the point, because of this fanatical defence to the last man tactic, American casualties during this assault on the tiny islands to the south of the Japanese archipelago were 12,000 dead and 50,000 wounded.  Just imagine how many Americans would have perished whilst trying to fight their way up the main islands of Japan! 

And it is worth bearing in mind that the first atomic attack on Hiroshima failed to dent the fanaticism of the Japanese authorities.  It took the second attack on Nagasaki to finally convince the Japanese leadership that the war was lost.  So keep your silly mouth shut, Mr. President, and perhaps the current Emperor of Japan will have the courtesy and courage "to speak truth to power" and thank your predecessor, the haberdasher from Missouri, for his great acumen and strength of character in taking one of the most hideously difficult decisions in the history of warfare.

Comments

[Michael Adams]

You do realize, don't you, that a North American Union is the creature of many a Right Winger's nightmares. Oh, yes, it has been proposed. It has been suggested that NAFTA was step one. Just imagine what mischief they could perpetrate if we combined the Socialist tendencies to the North and the South, with the South's legendary corruption, which puts New York and Chicago to shame.

As to those big bombs, my former minister was Japanese, and he was sure that the bombs saved his then-seven-year-old life.

There are still brainless Lefties (oops, sorry for the redundancy) in America who cry a river about the nuclear arsenal. It all hooks together in the propaganda train that said that the bombs were bad,bad, bad, because we had them when the Ruskies did not. Test bans, Complete Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Freezes, were all about weakening us so that the Soviets could run over Western Europe. The opened files of the old Soviet regime show that they had quite active plans, not just contingency plans, to use nukes to defeat the West and take the goodies. So, the bombs on Japan, who STARTED THE WAR in the first place, were first in a long line of sins, according to people who do not actually believe in Sin./rant

[Whitewall]

Barack Obama (pbhn) will be allowed to visit Britain? If there is any "good will" touring offered to him, please lodge him in Midsomer County. Briefly.

[David Duff]

Alas, Michael, the idea od a North American Union is already redundant because Obama is running an 'open door' policy by which means South America will simply move north!

"(pbhn)", Whiters? Give me a clue because it's too early in the morning for me to think!

[Loz]

Oi, if this Government is happy to nationalize the steel industry ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/21/government-prepares-to-part-nationalise-british-steel-sector/

... What hope is there of any Thatcherite party resisting a return to the 1970's?

The EU - the only executive institution in our midst that's prepared to "stop HMG spending other people's money", as Mags herself said and did.

SoD

[David Duff]

Sod off, SoD, it's too early in the morning for me to deal with you! And anyway, if we had our money back from Brussels we could nationalise anything we want! The other point is that though they may be a bunch of total tits in Westminster, they are British tits, not a bunch of vulgar Bulgars, Roumanians, etc, to be re-enforced very soon with all those democratic Turks!

[Loz]

Who cares if it's Vulgar Bulgars etc. or Anglo Wankers so long as they stop spending other people's money?

£1.5 billion per annum is the price tag just for that steel plant ...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/31/steel-crisis-nationalisation-not-the-answer-david-cameron-tata-steel

Once the rest of the politicos, unions, failed corporate execs get a sniff of unfettered access to other people's money post-Brexit you'll be through the money paid to the EU and out the other side before you can say "Juncker".

SoD

[David Duff]

"Who cares if it's Vulgar Bulgars etc. or Anglo Wankers"

I do! "Anglo wankers" needs must operate under a system of 'Anglo laws' built up slowly, and bloodily, over centuries. Vulgar Bulgars have no concept of common law and democratic governance beyond nicking everything they can lay their hands on and then putting you to death if you complain. And if you think that somehow the Euro-wallies are so much better at running economies than our own home-grown wallies then take a look at Greece, Portugal, Spain and, above all, Italy! They are already spending *your* money!

[Richard]

David is right.
You only have to compare the state of Germany on surrender to the state of Japan. Germany had to be invaded in order to be defeated and fought on to the bitter end being almost completely destroyed in the process. The damage to the infrastructure plus the casualties on both sides, both civilian and military, were horrendous.

Because of the two atomic bomb attacks, Japan surrendered and survived relatively intact. A full-scale invasion would have resulted in an absolute bloodbath.

Even when full allowance has been made for the sickening results of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one cannot help but conclude that those two bombs ended up saving a huge number of lives.

[Loz]

"I do! 'Anglo wankers' needs must operate under a system of 'Anglo laws' built up slowly, and bloodily, over centuries. "

And so must the Vulgar Bulgars when they join the EU and accept the anti-state aid rules and regs of the EU, rules and regs inspired by British, Thatcherite influence in Brussels.

"Vulgar Bulgars have no concept of common law and democratic governance beyond nicking everything they can lay their hands on and then putting you to death if you complain."

Neither has the current crop of Brit Tit politicos and the UK constitution. Left alone it will revert to "nicking everything they can lay their hands on" and "putting you to death" in an NHS hospital starved and dehydrated (after being abused by Jimmy Savile).

"And if you think that somehow the Euro-wallies are so much better at running economies than our own home-grown wallies then take a look at Greece, Portugal, Spain and, above all, Italy! They are already spending *your* money!"

No I don't think any government is any good at running anything. I look out for the situations where, for some reason, the government doesn't run anything. The only time that happened by democracy was the Thatcher Reagan era. It happens by accident in other circumstances, like when the executive has colonial adventures abroad, as Britain did in the 19th century, which flatters to deceive that we have a freedom loving constitutionally restrained democracy - the only reason we had one century off tyranny in the last 2,000 years was the politicos were all bashing the natives in Bongo-Bongo Land! Or when there's a frontier wilderness to escape the politicos, as was the case in the USA until "civilisation" hit the Pacific ocean. Then it's game over for liberty. freedom, and constitutionally constrained democracy, and back to the status quo, as you put it "nicking everything they can lay their hands on and then putting you to death if you complain".

Our latter day accident in our favour and let off from tyranny is the conflict between HMG and EU that keeps the politicos - Brit Tits and Vulgar Bulgars alike - off our backs until one or other gets the upper hand. Brexit and joining the Euro constitutes "getting the upper hand", so let's stay in middle and enjoy the eye of the storm fleetingly while we can.

SoD

[Whitewall]

David, "(pbhn)", blessed be his name.

[Whitewall]

oops, praise, not blessed.

[David Duff]

That will be 50 lines before teatime, Whiters!

[jimmy glesga]

Harry Trueman made the right decision and ended the war. I find it strange that those who opposed his decision were prepared to see millions more killed.