I hope no one starts killing Americans because of the war in Iraq. There are good people from every walk of life in every country across the world. I hope they are intelligent enough to know that the people in power who wage these wars do not represent everyone in the country they are from, and there is usually nothing the citizens can do about it, no matter how strongly they oppose a war.

If someone from the apartments next door stole something from me, I wouldnt blow up the entire apartment complex, I would find the individual responsible and give them a good talkin' to !!!!

Okay...war is basically a catfight between governments. Only they really know why they are fighting and they both use dirty tactics when they can. Civilians are just trying to live in a world where their futures are determined by the actions of their governments. Drafting? That's bad but necessary if you accept that a war must be won. They don't just hand out drafts for the hell of it. Bombing a factory that makes weapons and vehicles for the enemy? You might as well consider the workers there enemies and bomb it anyway. A nuclear bomb on a city? Hell no. Killing innocent people in such a gruesome way just to make a point to their government and maybe get rid of a military base is no way to fight a war. We must have less destructive bombs that can take out military bases, make a point to the enemy government, and not harm civilians.

Except the times where we did use atomic bombs it seems like only an overwhelming display of force could cause the enemy to surrender. The experience that WWII had given the US with the Japanese military showed that they would continue to fight a losing battle practically to the last man because surrendering was considered out of the question. Conventional bombings in Tokyo which actually wound up killing more civilians than at least one of the atomic bombs didn't make the Japanese surrender, many of the generals didn't want to do that even after the bombs had been dropped.

The goal of the atomic bombings wasn't to take out some certain buildings in the city, it was an attempt to intimidate the Japanese government into surrender through a display of overwhelming force. It seems very likely that if we had gone with the imminent land invasion instead of this last ditch effort, more military and civilians would have died.