Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Wikipedia

Submitted by Ed Flaherty

August 6th Through 9th, Hard Memories

August 6th marks 79 years since the US dropped an uranium bomb on Hiroshima.  August 9th marks 79 years since the US dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.  200,000+ people died, most of them civilians.

August 7th is less well remembered.  In 1964, just 60 years ago, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was approved, opening the gates to our fateful war in Vietnam.  Zero members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted nay, and only two senators voted nay.  There should be statues and memorials to those two senators, Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening.   But their names have been largely lost in the dust-bin of history. Tragically, U.S.  veterans and family members are still dying daily in the US from Agent Orange.  Tragically, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians are still  dying daily from Agent Orange and unexploded ordnance.

Today, the compelling moral issue is the U.S. aiding and abetting the destruction of Gaza and its people.  There are a few voices of political leaders demanding that the U.S. stop arming Israel, but, despite the efforts of heroic groups like Jewish Voice For Peace, their voices are mostly ignored.  How will history judge us?  More importantly, what can U.S. citizens do now to end this obscene insanity?

 – Ed Flaherty is a peace activist and member of Veterans For Peace #161