Hiroshima…Is Obama Going to Apologize?
Published in Al-Rai
(Jordan) on 23 September 2009
by Auda Auda (link to original)
It’s been 64 years since the United States bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs in 1945, at the end of World War II. The bombing killed and wounded about half a million civilian men, women and children.
Many years have passed since this terrible tragedy and we haven’t heard any apology or regret from the United States throughout the past six decades. On the contrary, the United States insisted on not apologizing and not showing remorse. Recently, Quinnipiac University in the U.S. conducted a poll for the sixty-fourth anniversary of this humanitarian massacre and found that two-thirds of Americans think the United States' decision to resort to nuclear weapons was correct and necessary.
Interviews were conducted in the seventies and eighties of the past century with the pilot, Paul Tibbetts, who dropped the first atomic bomb in history on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He didn’t show any pangs of conscience for his actions and stressed that if he could go back in time, he would drop the bomb again with peace of mind. In addition, he was proud of what he did and believes that he did something important that no one has done before. Moreover, he had to train many times to drop this new bomb and carried out his assigned task to the fullest. He also stressed that he sleeps soundly and quietly every night, without any remorse, sorrow or pain.
In spite of this painful attitude from a class of the American people (if this poll was not fabricated like many polls in the world), U.S. President Barack Obama has other good opinions, including the belief that his country bears a moral responsibility to help bring about a world free of nuclear weapons--especially since they are the only country in the world who used this deadly and destructive weapon.
We also hope that President Obama does not shy away from working hard to free the world from nuclear weapons and we hope to have his marks on the nuclear policy of silence adopted by Israel, which holds hundreds of nuclear warheads. If he does, we will share his concerns regarding the Iranian ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and the desire to inhibit the many countries in that region and around the world who may want to possess such weapons in the future.
One would be surprised at the American panic over the Iranian possession of nuclear weapons, which is expected after nearly 10 years, without being similarly scared of Israel, which has possessed these weapons for many years. Especially when many countries in the region and in the Middle East have declared their fear of Israeli nuclear arms, which made them focus on the arms race instead of going for further development and achievement of true prosperity. This prosperity was absent after the creation of this occupying state on the Palestinian people’s historical land.
President Obama has well-known and honorable opinions on the Vietnam War, the Iraq war, supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state, the closure of Guantanamo prison and the prevention of torture in U.S. prisons. Adding to that, he announced a few days ago and confirmed his government's retreat from the construction of a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland. All of these steps have been met with worldwide respect and appreciation.
I daresay that President Obama has another huge and important golden opportunity to claim his country's moral responsibility for what happened in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 64 years ago.
Many years have passed since this terrible tragedy and we haven’t heard any apology or regret from the United States throughout the past six decades. On the contrary, the United States insisted on not apologizing and not showing remorse. Recently, Quinnipiac University in the U.S. conducted a poll for the sixty-fourth anniversary of this humanitarian massacre and found that two-thirds of Americans think the United States' decision to resort to nuclear weapons was correct and necessary.
Interviews were conducted in the seventies and eighties of the past century with the pilot, Paul Tibbetts, who dropped the first atomic bomb in history on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He didn’t show any pangs of conscience for his actions and stressed that if he could go back in time, he would drop the bomb again with peace of mind. In addition, he was proud of what he did and believes that he did something important that no one has done before. Moreover, he had to train many times to drop this new bomb and carried out his assigned task to the fullest. He also stressed that he sleeps soundly and quietly every night, without any remorse, sorrow or pain.
In spite of this painful attitude from a class of the American people (if this poll was not fabricated like many polls in the world), U.S. President Barack Obama has other good opinions, including the belief that his country bears a moral responsibility to help bring about a world free of nuclear weapons--especially since they are the only country in the world who used this deadly and destructive weapon.
We also hope that President Obama does not shy away from working hard to free the world from nuclear weapons and we hope to have his marks on the nuclear policy of silence adopted by Israel, which holds hundreds of nuclear warheads. If he does, we will share his concerns regarding the Iranian ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and the desire to inhibit the many countries in that region and around the world who may want to possess such weapons in the future.
One would be surprised at the American panic over the Iranian possession of nuclear weapons, which is expected after nearly 10 years, without being similarly scared of Israel, which has possessed these weapons for many years. Especially when many countries in the region and in the Middle East have declared their fear of Israeli nuclear arms, which made them focus on the arms race instead of going for further development and achievement of true prosperity. This prosperity was absent after the creation of this occupying state on the Palestinian people’s historical land.
President Obama has well-known and honorable opinions on the Vietnam War, the Iraq war, supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state, the closure of Guantanamo prison and the prevention of torture in U.S. prisons. Adding to that, he announced a few days ago and confirmed his government's retreat from the construction of a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland. All of these steps have been met with worldwide respect and appreciation.
I daresay that President Obama has another huge and important golden opportunity to claim his country's moral responsibility for what happened in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 64 years ago.