Mathias’ Madness

Wow.  I have rarely seen so much disjointed logic, moral decrepidness, and historical ignorance all in one place at the same time.  Michael Mathias has outdone himself. 

Mathias begins his post with some recently uncovered pictures of the aftermath of Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb.  The pictures are truly horrific and show the ravages of war in all of its gruesome and tragic detail.  He goes on to say:

Recall that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki followed six months of US firebombing on Japanese cities. By August of 1945, Japan was an utterly defeated enemy, and no threat to anyone—certainly not the United States.

That’s just a flaming example of historical ignorance.  In fact, Japan was arming the homeland for a U.S. invasion.  U.S. commanders estimated that it would take at least 1,000,000 American casualties to take the Japanese islands and at least twice that many Japanese casualties.  Also, after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, the U.S. demanded unconditional surrender from Japan.  They refused.  The Emperor wanted to fight on and his people believed that they could.  Hence, the second bomb. 

Dropping the bomb killed a great many people, but in the cruel calculations of war, it saved far more lives. 

Mathias goes on…

Aerial bombing is a feature of the current campaign in Iraq. While precise estimates of civilian casualties are hard to come by, the use of such a tactic on an innocent population in a country that poses no threat to us is simply morally untenable.

Apples and oranges, Mathias… In WWII, the Allies had a policy of total war.  The carpet bombings of Tokyo, Dresden, Berlin, etc. intentionally killed civilians in order to break the back of the war effort in the Axis countries.  In the Iraq War, America is taking great measures to avoid civilian targets.  Yes, some civilians get caught in the crossfire, but America is doing all it can to avoid it.  If B-52s were carpet bombing Sadr City, then maybe Mathis would have an argument here, but they aren’t and he doesn’t.

Mathias continues on a tangent:

In the meantime, there continues to be lots fulminating about Barack Obama’s alleged unwillingness to repudiate William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground with whom Obama apparently has a tangential relationship.

Now, one may find it criminal that William Ayers has learned the same lesson Ann Coulter has—namely, that controversial statements and images help sell books. As objectionable as that may be, Ayers never killed anyone. The only bombing he’s taken responsibility for, a bathroom at the Pentagon, injured not a soul.

Let me get this straight… Ayers was an active terrorist (now retired) who bombed places in America.  True, he didn’t kill anyone, but that was merely a happenstance of fate.  Morally, there is no difference between the willful act of terrorism that might have killed someone and the willful act of terrorism that does.  Yet, Mathias brushes off a willful act of terrorism that might have killed people as meaningless. 

I hope Mathias was drunk when he put up that post.  Otherwise, his cavalier dismissal of terrorist bombings against the U.S. and failure to understand history might be taken as the rantings of a stereotypical America-hating Leftist… or a child.