Might look into that. We're planning some non-training topics.
Having watched your latest "hard nipples" Q&A my first thought-oh Rips gonna be in so much trouble with that moral justification. In my view you are indeed correct and you are one of the few who have dared say it. You asked who might be worth interviewing on the subject - the only people who follow your line of reasoning are objectivists. If you wanted to interview someone, then you couldn't do better than Leonard Piekoff on the subject-he even makes you seem tame-but, unfortunately Mr Peikoff is in retirement and isn't likely to welcome any interview at this point in his life. The next best would be Yaron Brook from the ARI who might well be happy to be interviewed as he is always looking for interesting platforms and open debate. What's more, he has a bad back, so maybe you can convince him to get under a barbell.
For an example of the views on bombing of Leonard Peikoff, then you can't beat his ultra passionate defence on the bombing of Iran after 9/11.
YouTube
Might look into that. We're planning some non-training topics.
I thought this was a pretty standard topic in Philosophy class in colleges across the US. That is, discussing the morality of bombing Japan during WWII.
I've never really even entertained the idea that the WW2 bombing campaigns were immoral. Fact is, if not for the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, I would not have been born with almost total certainty. I learned from very early on that my grandpa was a marine in the Pacific. He was at Iwo Jima and if not for those bombs, he was slated to be one of the first wave of troops landing on mainland Japan. He and many others like him did not have good odds of surviving that, to say the least. Especially not with the way Japan fought.
The U.S was always more certain of itself. In Europe, the destruction wrought on our culture, art, history and people has become an eternal shame. The U.S had a clear enemy that was half way across the world, which attacked Pearl Harbour and was a barbaric feudal country. It's much easier then to justify the bombing raids on Japan, although many still do not and I think that is partly due to European influence and is reflected in the timidity of modern U.S foreign policy where counter revolutions, surgical strikes and bringing 'democracy' are much preferred over collateral damage.
Europe, by contrast, had no excuse for what it did to itself in the First World War -we haven't yet come to terms with it. The continuation of that war was inevitable and with it came the first mass bombing of civilians. 'Bomber' Harris and the men of bomber command have been ostracised for decades and have only recently been grudgingly accepted as war heroes-though not Harris, who is still considered close to a genocididal maniac by many.
Are we really going to give “objectivism” a forum now? We might as well call David Miscavige while we’re at it.
Flying into Tokyo from the East, you see a long, curving beach—at least 20 miles long. When our plane flew over it, a chill went up my spine—that was the beach McArthur had assigned himself for the landing. Bloodbath.
Check out what they Japan did in Singapore and Nanking.
My mother was a liberal Democrat until her death at 93. But she and her twin sister were standing on the Arizona Memorial with their husbands when a group of Japanese tourists came aboard, laughing and taking pictures. My aunt said something appropriate to their behavior and they looked over
“Be quiet, Sister—they understand us,” my Mom said.
My aunt replied: “I don’t give a damn, Sister—I’ve hated them since 1941 and I hate them now.”
I’m sure these folks were good people—but their inappropriate laughter would not have been tolerated if American tourists were whooping it up and hurrahing in front of the Hiroshima memorial.