Obama’s Hiroshima Visit Will Give New Meaning to Meaningless Publicity Stunts
America’s trusted political pundits are all hot and bothered by Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Hiroshima. Will our Nobel Peace Prize-bedazzled president apologize for his nation’s “pragmatic” decision to drop an atomic bomb on a city with no real military value? (No.) After all, as the National Review was quick to point out, we killed far more Japanese in World War II “the old fashioned way.” So saying sorry just because we melted two cities — killing an estimated 200,000 and causing long-term environmental and health problems which lasted long after the war — would just be plain silly.
Another reason that Barack Obama will not apologize during his visit to Hiroshima is because Barack Obama is “really good at killing people,” according to a bookwhich quotes a rather boastful Barack Obama. This is coming from a president who sends heavily-armed flying robots to far away lands in order to hunt nameless military-aged brown people. It’s a bit unpleasant, but it’s all for the greater good — much like the atomic payloads we dropped on Japan all those many years ago.
So apologizing to the people of Hiroshima (and the entire world, for starting the nuclear arms race) is clearly off the table. What will Obama do instead? Simple:
With the end of his last term in office approaching in January, Obama will “highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement.“He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, wrote in a separate blog.
And as he reads from the gospel of nonproliferation in Hiroshima, Obama will continue his $1 trillion upgrade of America’s nuclear arsenal. Say what you will, but the man is a seasoned multitasker.
Like his non-barrier breaking visit to Cuba (his “handshake” with Raul Castro says it all), Obama’s “historic” visit to Hiroshima will be yet another meaningless photo op that will give new meaning to meaningless photo ops.
If Obama really wanted to mend our complicated and tragic past with Japan, he would order American soldiers to finally leave that peaceful island nation for good; sexual assaults and rapes in Okinawa might decrease tenfold overnight.
And just think, 75 years from now people are going to be debating whether apologies should finally be issued for Obama’s various crimes against humanity. Isn’t kicking the can down the road fun?
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