Hiroshima

If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
— Albert Einstein

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America dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 60 years ago today. Tuesday, Aug 9th, is the 60th anniversary of the A-bomb dropping on Nagasaki.

The standard defense for this action is that more Americans and Japanese would have died if America had invaded Japan. I don't know.

America had already been dropping standard bombs on a number of Japanese cities, and that would certainly have continued. Plans were in the works for a pincher movement between the Americans, who would have come from the south, and the Soviets, who would have come from the north. So - who can say how many would have died altogether?

I'm just glad I don't have to do the kind of math that values one life against another, or decides that a few thousand deaths is preferable to a hundred thousand deaths.

Are 1776 American deaths in Iraq "enough", just because that number reflects the day America declared independence? Is today's figure, 1828, enough?

Are 26,396 Iraqis dead since the May invasion enough? Do we count the Iraqi dead due to American bombings between the end of Gulf War I and the current conflict? Do we count those dead from starvation during the American embargo? Do we count those who suffered and died from lack of medicine during that embargo?

How many deaths must it take before we know too many people have died?

One person is enough. One person is too many.