What remains the most controversial act by any President of the United States began on August 6, 1945 and ended on August 9, 1945. President Harry Truman ordered the use of atomic weapons known as “Fat Man,” and “Little Boy,” on the people of Japan. The first bomb was launched from a B-29 on August 6, 1945 and devastated the city of Hiroshima. Only estimates remain of the loss of life on that day. They range between 90,000 and 146,000; most of whom were civilians. On August 9, 1945 the other atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The death toll was estimated to have been between 39,000 and 80,000. At least one-half of the lives lost on both days are directly attributed to the initial explosions. The remainder experienced great suffering as they died from the effects of the explosions and the effects of radiation poisoning.

These attacks brought an end to WWII, but they were also the cause of where our nation’s reputation and respect exists in the world today. No other nation has used nuclear weapons against another country. Japan is the only sovereign nation which suffered the deaths of tens-of-thousands of innocent men, women, and children from the use of a bomb with the capability of such mass destruction and death.

It was in August 1945 when our government and our military leaders became aware that the United States could not win a war with conventional tactics.

Our military spends five-times more money on weapons, troops, and the operation of obsolete bases around the world than all other nation’s combined. This does not make us the most powerful military in the world, it makes us a frighteningly large nuclear army.

America’s next war was in Korea. In 1953 a truce was signed; there has been no “peace treaty” as of this day. Whatever purpose our government created for this military conflict was not achieved. At least 33,652 soldiers lost their lives and the financial cost was $30 billion in ‘1953 dollars.  The truth is, we lost that war.

To this day only one in a million Americans can offer a valid reason why United States military engaged in jungle warfare in Southeast Asia. Waging a war in Vietnam resulted in three things. We lost 58,220 of our nation’s people. Adjusted for inflation, the fiscal cost of the “war” was over $1,000,000,000,000. Our nation became divided primarily by age; young men and women who were sent to fight were supported by their families and friends back home, and  protested against their parents and grandparents who supported the government.

In 1975 our military conducted an embarrassing retreat, leaving many of our South Vietnamese allies fearing for their lives. Another loss.

In 2003, in reaction to the cowardly attacks on 9/11, and under false pretenses, George W. Bush invaded Iraq. When we finally left in 2011 the region was destabilized, which aided what had been a small sharia rebellion we call “ISIS,” to grow in power and become the primary threat to peace in the Middle East.

At last count America lost 4,424 men and women. The fiscal cost of the illegal war was a minimum of $1.9 trillion. Another loss for America’s government and our military.

American military forces remain in Afghanistan today. The Taliban remains in control of the day to day lives of the Afghani people. Beginning in 2001 the war in Afghanistan is the longest war in our nation’s history. Both efforts to downsize the number of our military in Afghanistan, and several “surges” in their numbers have all failed. 6,251 soldiers lost their lives, however that number is likely under-reported as of 2018. The fiscal cost is well over one-trillion dollars today and growing.

The Russians waged a war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989 and left in disgrace; they lost a war. Our dysfunctional government refuses to learn from history and remains in a country where conventional wars are unwinnable. We cannot win this war; we lose wars today, we cannot claim a single victory since 1945.

In any war those who make the decisions to engage in military conflict profit from investments while the working class, who actually engage in combat lose lives, family, friends, and their future.

It’s time to reduce the size of our military and use that money for those who would be sent to war.

The Pentagon wastes 50 cents of every dollar they receive. Low-income and impoverished Americans compose nearly 50 percent of our nation’s 320 million people.

Please tell others about my blog; a place to find the truth.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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