Poll: U.S. More Likely to Expect WWIII

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/23/AR2005072300325.html

Poll: U.S. More Likely to Expect WWIII

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified.

Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war claimed about 400,000 U.S. troops around the world, more than three times that many Japanese troops and at least 300,000 Japanese civilians.


Out of the ashes, Japan and the United States forged a close political alliance. Americans and Japanese now generally have good feelings about each other.

But people in the two countries have very different views on everything from the U.S. use of the atomic bomb in 1945, fears of North Korea and the American military presence in Japan.

<</SNIP>>

[meganmonkey]

1. If you ask me

We've already begun it.

That's the only thing accomplished in this mission

x(

[Theres-a]

2. Bingo!

[ScamUSA.Com]

20. personally I believe that's true

WWIII has started

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Since "terrorists" have so many underground bunkers.... many

of the several hundred feet deep..... lol... we MUST develop new and improved nuclear tipped, bunker busting, earth penetrating, concrete crushing, steel melting, radiation emitting, crater creating, mankind destroying, "defensive weapons" as we can..... cuz we certainly aren't interested in doing any actual "war" on any conventional targets.... </sarcasm>

[Karmageddon]

4. Bunker busting nukes are great... if you know EXACTLY where to drop them

If you miss by more than a couple 100 feet or so (depending on the size of the bomb and the depth of the bunker, of course), you leave a great big hole in the ground and all you do to a well built bunker is make it smell like crap, from all the people inside who shit themselves when it hit. Maybe knock some cracks in the walls, but certainly don't destroy it. So you have to know "precisely" where the secret, hidden underground bunker is hidden.

Which is why I'm glad that we have such an outstanding intelligence community, fully supported by the administration....

Man, we are so fucked.

[HockeyMom]

5. I am not up on the science of this

but is there radioactive fallout from these bunker busters?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Science on these things.....

Yeah... but hey... at least the millions would be "over there".

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_weapons/page.cfm?pageID=1170

Technical realities:
According to several recent scientific studies, RNEP would not be effective at destroying many underground targets, and its use could result in the death of millions of people.<2>

RNEP would produce tremendous radioactive fallout: A nuclear earth penetrator cannot penetrate deep enough to contain the nuclear fallout. Even the strongest casing will crush itself by the time it penetrates 10-30 feet into rock or concrete. For comparison, even a one-kiloton nuclear warhead (less than 1/10th as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb) must be buried at least 200-300 feet to contain its radioactive fallout.<3> The high yield RNEP will produce tremendous fallout that will drift for more than a thousand miles downwind. As, Linton Brooks, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told Congress in April, "the laws of physics will far enough to trap all fallout. This is a nuclear weapon that is going to be hugely destructive over a large area" if it goes off underground.

RNEP could kill millions of people: A simulation of RNEP used against the Esfahan nuclear facility in Iran, using the software developed for the Pentagon, showed that 3 million people would be killed by radiation within 2 weeks of the explosion, and 35 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India would be exposed to increased levels of cancer-causing radiation (see Figure 1).<4>

[HockeyMom]

17. Thanks.

What I surmised.

[Zorra]

6. WW III will be a sure thing with Karen Hughes traipsing around the globe

trying to repair our national image and severely strained diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.

Attila the Hun: "I come in peace."

[WhiteTara]

8. with chimpy's catastrophic success

in Iraq, we can be sure that he is working day and night (cause it's hard, hard work) to complete his obsession with armageddon and embroil the whole world in a war.

IMPEACH BUSH AND SEND HIM TO THE HAGUE
:patriot:

[wookie294]

9. Dwight Eisenhower opposed nuking Japan

Here's something high school teachers concealed from me....

"Japan was already defeated .... dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary .... I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives." – Dwight Eisenhower

http://fair.org/extra/9504/enola-gay.html

[Straight Shooter]

10. It wasn't about defeating Japan. It was about sending a message.

We wanted the world to know we had "the bomb" and, more importantly, the devastation it would unleash.

Now, here we are in the 21st Century. Different war, same sh*t message.

[bpilgrim]

12. Japan was already defeated and suing for peace - our first SHOCK-n-AWE

to the WORLD.



though, every military leader in theater at the time opposed using them.

* In his memoirs Admiral William D. Leahy, the President's Chief of Staff--and the top official who presided over meetings of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff--minced few words:

(T)he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .

(I)n being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. (THE DECISION, p. 3.)

more...
http://www.doug-long.com/ga1.htm

psst... pass the word ;->

peace

[DivinBreuvage]

18. Yeah, and the real kicker was that Uncle Joe already KNEW we had it

and in fact he had one himself shortly thereafter.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. He learned about the Trinity test on July 24, 1945

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/potsdam.html

That's one reason why he waited until the Hiroshima bombing to launch his invasion of the northern Japanese islands.

[solinvictus]

22. I have mixed feelings on this one..

On the one hand, a faction of the Japanese government was attempting to sue for peace. On the other, the naval and army commanders who were really running the country were gearing up civilians to use bamboo spears against American amphibious assaults. I just can't make an honest judgement on this one because I'm looking from pure hindsight.

[54anickel]

11. Guess *co was successful in setting those expectations then. Things

that are expected are more easily accepted. What was that warning about a military- industrial complex again?

[Dr Fate]

13. "World War Four will be fought with sticks & stones."

Paraphrasing Einstien.

[daleo]

14. If anyone is around the next day to talk about it, it wasn't really WWIII.

I have noticed a tendency to talk about these things more lightly recently. Conservatives have recast the Cold War as WWIII, and are calling this latest affair (the so called war on terror) WWIV. It is like they are trying to take the awful sting out of the phrase. When I grew up, World War III was unthinkable as it mean annihilation.

[Seabiscuit]

15. Given enough time the neocons will START WWIII.

Hell, they're well on the road already.

[NYC Liberal]

16. That is because if it happens, it will probably be us who

provokes it. :(

[sweetheart]

19. ww3 and 4 will kill 50 million americans

And until that is the death toll, its a bit silly to use the term
"world war" to describe a few thousand dea. World war is in the many
millions... and lets hope, pray that we are forever spared that level
of stupidity amongst the elites.

[solinvictus]

21. China..

I fear China will finally build enough reach to take Taiwan. I believe that'd be the catalyst for WW3, not the current Middle East situation.

[leesa]

23. The Fundies are positively creamin' their jeans in anticipation!

[maddezmom]

24. death and destruction

what a mantra :sad:

[merwin]

26. Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely

Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified.

Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war claimed about 400,000 U.S. troops around the world, more than three times that many Japanese troops and at least 300,000 Japanese civilians.

Out of the ashes, Japan and the United States forged a close political alliance. Americans and Japanese now generally have good feelings about each other.

But people in the two countries have very different views on everything from the U.S. use of the atomic bomb in 1945, fears of
North Korea and the American military presence in Japan.

...

[TheHelplessLlama]

27. It would not surprise me

to see WW III in my lifetime. I'm willing to bet that the United States will try it's damnedest to prevent it... and upon failure of preventing it, it will try it's damnedest to stay out of it. Look at the trend, we waited until the last year of WWI to join, and waited just as long to join WWII. All I can hope is that we aren't the ones to start it, and until there is a severe change to the warmongering of the Bush administration, it doesn't look promising.

As for the use of the atomic bomb, it is my belief that it was a necessary evil. The death of any civilians as a result of war is tragic, but how much worse would it have been had the US not dropped the bomb? The US fought for every inch of ground against the Japanese. Even if the Germans were conquered first, do you honestly believe that the Japanese would abandon their creed of never surrendering? The US would have scraped and clawed for every inch, right up to Tokyo. It would have been a slaughter.

I refuse to believe that any sane person would want to start a nuclear war. Anyone with half a brain knows that the next time a nuke is used, EVERYONE is going to use their nukes. I am not for doing away entirely with nukes, but I can't help but worry about a time when we finally piss someone off enough to wipe us off the face of the planet.

[NEOBuckeye]

30. Dick Cheney is NOT a sane person

And he is the one with his hand on the red button.

[Voltaire99]

28. Alas, I expect to see it.

The signs are in place.

Rationality supplanted by religious mysticism. . .economic decline and depleting oil. . .the collapse of the two party system into uni-party politics. . .the envenoming of the world against us by our stupid leaders. . .the rise of the torture-based national security state. . .the supremacy over democratic processes of corporo-military power. . .the elimination of critical news media. . .

History tires of tyrants, but seldom overnight. It's going to be down to luck.

[DBoon]

29. If there is any truth to the stories

about Bush considering attacking Iran with "tactical" nuclear weapons (after a terrorist hi on the USA), I think WWIII will happen very soon.

[truthpusher]

31. Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely

http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=971597

Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely
-----------------
Americans Are Far More Likely Than Japanese to Expect Another World War, AP-Kyodo Polling Shows
-----------------
By WILL LESTER
The Associated Press
-----------------
Jul. 24, 2005 - Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified.

(snip)

Some of the widest differences came on expectations of a new world war.

Six in 10 Americans said they think such a war is likely, while only one-third of the Japanese said so, according to polling done in both countries for The Associated Press and Kyodo, the Japanese news service.

"Man's going to destroy man eventually. When that will be, I don't know," said Gaye Lestaeghe of Freeport, La.

Some question whether that war has arrived, with fighting dragging on in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism.

"I feel like we're in a world war right now," said Susan Aser, a real estate agent from Rochester, N.Y.

(snip)

complete story: http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=971597

[sniffa]

32. and americans say...

some endLess pooL of "someone eLse's kids" wiLL be fight it.

[goforit]

33. Truthpusher.......this article is a repeat.

Fear tactics over and over on th DU.

hmmmmmm.......

[shadowknows69]

35. Why is America ok with that

WWIII in the Reagan years meant all out nuclear war and the end of all things. I suspect today's WWIII would be similarly destructive. Except it's going to be the rest of the world VS. us.

[dbeach]

34. who starts the wars..who profits??

and of course..the scions of privlege will be well protected..either way..if theyre in the war or in the bunkers with the privleged.

let the pols and the higher ranks of officers in each warrring govt fight the wars..

whadda scam..!!

war war war..

[Gyre]

36. A nation of morans.

We apparently actually think you can "wage war" against a political methodology (terror). Or maybe we actually are supportive of waging war on the earth itself (terra), and we're the last to figure it out!

In either case, we really do have the guvmnt we deserve; a rogue elephant stomping on whole villages trying to swat tsetse flies. Just bad kharma to be on the planet with us. :shrug:

Gyre