Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Atomic Bombs Kick Ass
Oliver Willis apparently believes that the Democrat Party would do better if they adapted more of a rootin' tootin' cowboy, "bring 'em on" swagger...especially when it comes to nuclear warfare.
Oliver unveiled this unBenneton design for one of his "New Brand Dem T-Shirts" that he hawks at Cafepress.com:
So far, at least two liberal bloggers, Dadahead and Buyo, have "blasted" Oliver Willis for making light of nuclear warfare.
Dadahead:
"Is that supposed to be fucking funny? This is the kind of thing that makes me not want to be a Democrat. I don't know what the fuck Willis is thinking, but he should think again."
Buyo:
"Just to show lunacy is not restricted to one side of the political spectrum, how about this disgusting example of degeneracy from Oliver Willis, who boastfully subtitles his site "Like Kryptonite to Stupid"? I think the t-shirt (which bears the slogan "Truman dropped the bomb", if you can't make it out) is designed as a piece of pro-Democrat party propaganda based on the twisted logic that killing more than 200,000 civilians is a tough thing to do and Truman, a Democrat, did it."
Buyo crafted a "commemorative t-shirt" for Oliver Willis which can be seen at the above link.
Oliver Willis defends himself with this comment he left at Dadahead's post:
"I'm not about to back away from a Democratic president who did the right thing to defend our nation."
First off, I think there's quite a difference between "back[ing] away" and nyah-nyahing Republicans who - thankfully - have yet to go Dr. Strangelove on their perceived enemies' asses.
Personally, I believe August 10th was America's second darkest day in history; the worst occurred three days later. While it's often touted that the uranium and plutonium blasts may have saved hundreds of thousands of American servicemen's lives, I don't think that the annihilation of a couple hundred thousand Japanese civilians and the injection of radiation into the bloodstreams of countless future generations qualifies as a "necessary evil."
Regardless of how one feels about either of the atomic blasts, anyone who thinks that Democrats should show off their party's "got there first" status might want to acquaint themselves with the words of Chris Clair, a former Army combat engineer, who got a first-hand look at the post-apocalyptic devastation when he helped occupy Japan shortly after the Japanese surrender, from an article written by Tom Berg for The Orange County Register a few weeks ago on the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima:
"We were happy because hundreds of thousands of American lives were saved. But we weren't happy that so many people were killed. It's not a memory I focus on. It's better not to think about it any more."
Chris Clair saw the horror. Oliver Willis wants to embrace it.
Perhaps Oliver should add a kick-ass picture to his nifty t-shirt design.
Yosuke Yamahata, a photographer from the Japanese Army, took this photograph shortly after the Hiroshima bombing on August 10th, 1945:
Consider that a "reality-based" photograph. Or are you just about slogans, Oliver?
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