The late George Orwell once quipped that there are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could take them seriously- no working class man or woman in their right minds would do so. The recent 70th anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought out the usual canards from the "usual suspects"( such as journalist and avowed Marxist- read Communist- Eamonn McCann in today's Irish Times, www irishtimes.com, August 6, 2105) to the effect that (a) the bombing was a "crime against humanity" (b) it was intended to "intimidate" the Soviet Union( from doing what has NEVER been made clear- swallowing up the Baltic States and then the rest of Eastern Europe , launching first the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49 and then the Korean War of 1950-53???).

McCann's article is noticeable for its singular omission of any indication that Japan(much like Germany) may very well have reaped what it had sown in sheer inhumanity ie, The Rape of Nanking in occupied China of 1937, the Bataan Death march of 1942, Unit 731(which engaged in unethical and abusive medical experimentation upon Allied POWs and native peoples every bit as bad as those of Joseph Mengele).

I have read the most recent biography of Harry S.Truman( "Truman" by David McCullough, Simon and Schuster 1992) as well his own memoirs and am convinced that he was speaking the truth when he said that the attacks were necessary to save the lives of American servicemen. Unlike certain of his predecessors such as Lyndon B.Johnson, Richard "Tricky Dicky" Nixon( of whom Truman once aptly observed "He does not lie simply because it is in his own interests to do so; he lies because it is within his very nature to lie!"), or more recently George W.Bush, Truman both as President and afterwards was a man of integrity, he might not always tell the whole truth but what he said in public was likely to be true.

McCann also quotes Wilfrid Burchett in his article , ignoring his record as a pro-Soviet "useful idiot" for Stalin( see Burchett's Wikipedia entry).

Too bad the late Robert Conquest died a few days ago, he could have cited McCann's article as an example of the pro-Soviet and anti-Western bias of certain pundits!

Anybody think as i do?

Terry