Just saw the new Errol Morris movie at the Angelika. "The Fog of War". I will write more about it as it sinks in, but anyone who can, should see it.
It's an interview with Robert McNamara, the so-called "Architect of the Viet Nam war". The movie covers a bunch of stuff though, from WWII, to the Cuban Missle Crisis, up to Viet Nam.
The first thing that struck me was this: McNamara talked about the WWII Allied bombing of Tokyo. That night, he said, we dropped fire bombs, killing over 100,000 civilians. 100,000. In one night. I'd known about the bombing of Tokyo, but for some reason, the numbers had never sunk in before.
But McNamara went on to say that he believed, that had the Axis won the war, both he and ( I forget the name ), the general who ordered the strike ( the same one who ordered the nuke strikes on Japan ) would certainly have been treated as war criminals for this act.
Just raises some interesting questions about history being written by the victors...
I'll jot some more about this as it comes into my head, but all for now...
It's an interview with Robert McNamara, the so-called "Architect of the Viet Nam war". The movie covers a bunch of stuff though, from WWII, to the Cuban Missle Crisis, up to Viet Nam.
The first thing that struck me was this: McNamara talked about the WWII Allied bombing of Tokyo. That night, he said, we dropped fire bombs, killing over 100,000 civilians. 100,000. In one night. I'd known about the bombing of Tokyo, but for some reason, the numbers had never sunk in before.
But McNamara went on to say that he believed, that had the Axis won the war, both he and ( I forget the name ), the general who ordered the strike ( the same one who ordered the nuke strikes on Japan ) would certainly have been treated as war criminals for this act.
Just raises some interesting questions about history being written by the victors...
I'll jot some more about this as it comes into my head, but all for now...
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Keeping my fingers crossed for the second martian rover landing tonight....
edit: oh yeah, and SGNY has started up weekly bar meets on Saturday afternoon. So if you're free on a Saturday and can make it to the Tompkins square park area it might be a good chance to meet some people. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you a private message with details.
[Edited on Jan 24, 2004 1:03PM]