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2026-03-16 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo. A lesson for today in the ruthlessness needed to win wars.

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Posted by Omans Slath8956 2026-03-16 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1802 views ] Top

1 Something wrong with you.

Posted by Skidmark 2026-03-16 00:43|| 2026-03-16 00:43|| Front Page Top

2 Nothing wrong with people who like WINNING.
The same was done to Hamburg. The same was done to Dresden. The same was done to Nagasaki. The same was done to Hiroshima.
Ever noticed all of those have stopped giving us problems?
Gaza too, but that was done far more pensively and tediously with old-fashioned demolition bombs.
Operation Meetinghouse took a single night.

Posted by Omans Slath8956 2026-03-16 01:08|| 2026-03-16 01:08|| Front Page Top

3 You smell that? Do you smell that?... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory.

-- Col. Kilgore, Apocalypse now.
We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig... cow after cow... village after village... army after army...
-- COl. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now

Posted by Omans Slath8956 2026-03-16 01:20|| 2026-03-16 01:20|| Front Page Top

4 We don’t need to waste ordinance on civilian targets when we can take out militarily useful objectives, including military and government people, because our targetting ability is just that good.

We firebombed Dresden and Hamburg to break the spirit of the German people, who strongly supported the Nazi government until the personal cost got too high. But the vast majority of the Iranian people oppose their rulers, so their spirit does not need to be broken. And in fact, going after them would just lead them toside with the Mullahcracy, so it would be counterproductive.

You want the smell burning bodies? Recall when the IDF destroyed the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut when the top tier was meeting there, along with some billions of dollars of gold and an awful lot of ordinance that cooked off in glorious secondaries. Local civilians were seen poking through the rubble after it cooled, collecting gold nuggets and rivulets.

Ditto recently, when the IDF sent missiles through the roof of the building where almost the entirety of Iran’s Mullahcracy was meeting, including the Grand Ayotollah Khamanei himself.

But about a third of Israelis have ancestors who died in the Nazi concentration camps, and then their bodies were incinerated. So the country has an aversion to smelling burning flesh — I’m sure you understand.

Posted by trailing wife 2026-03-16 01:30|| 2026-03-16 01:30|| Front Page Top

5 But the imaginations of post-Viet Nam film script writers with no experience on the subject who were eager to portray our soldiers as vicious, conscienceless beasts is not a useful guide to how to think about the subject.

Posted by trailing wife 2026-03-16 01:48|| 2026-03-16 01:48|| Front Page Top

6 The targeting of civilians in Germany and in England was ineffective. The burning of Tokyo didn’t break the will of the people. Japan had no military strike capability left and was totally blockaded. The atomic bombings kicked off an internal insurrection. Had the military not lost that struggle, an invasion would have been required. The bombing of civilians failed to break the will of North Vietnam as well.

In the case of Iran, the civilians revolted against their brutal government and asked for us to take out their military that was slaughtering them. Targeting the civilian population of Iran is akin to firebombing Paris. What a dumb idea.

Posted by Super Hose 2026-03-16 06:27|| 2026-03-16 06:27|| Front Page Top

7 Both Japan and Germany had centuries of militaristic heritage. After 1945, that nearly all vanished. It was a profound social change. Those are facts.

As for Japan, its production relied heavily on home industry, small shops that operated through out urban areas that delivered parts and components to the larger factories. When those were burned out, war production dropped unlike Germany.

There are a series of articles by the historian Alvin Coxx who specialized in the Pacific War, in Purnell's History of the Second World War, that well documents the effectiveness of that bombing campaign. It worked.

Posted by Procopius2k 2026-03-16 08:06|| 2026-03-16 08:06|| Front Page Top

8 Bombing military industrial sites makes a lot of sense. Blockading, bombing logistics and preventing military manufacture also has been proven to work. Bombing a civilian population to demoralize them didn’t seem to work in England, Japan, Germany or North Vietnam. The Iranian people and French people for that matter don’t need to be carpet bombed. Precision strikes are possible with today’s technology. There will be some civilian casualties. No need to torch all of Tehran.

Posted by Super Hose 2026-03-16 09:20|| 2026-03-16 09:20|| Front Page Top

9 @OP Might be wise for you to increase your meds or see the shrink more often.

Posted by Chantry 2026-03-16 09:22|| 2026-03-16 09:22|| Front Page Top

10 Bombing a civilian population to demoralize them didn’t seem to work in England, Japan, Germany or North Vietnam.

My citation says otherwise on Japan. It's documented there.

Posted by Procopius2k 2026-03-16 10:46|| 2026-03-16 10:46|| Front Page Top

11 You think the fact that we killed millions of them with nuclear weapons and firebombing had something to do with the fact that they went from a nation of samurai that behead you for looking at them wrong to the world's most famous pacifists?
It could work with muslims. Not saying it will work, just saying it could be worth a try.
For a small-scale experiment let's wait a few years and see if Gaza starts attacking Israel again.

Posted by Omans Slath8956 2026-03-16 11:12|| 2026-03-16 11:12|| Front Page Top

12 Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay are war criminals, let's face it.

Posted by DooDahMan 2026-03-16 15:18|| 2026-03-16 15:18|| Front Page Top

13 Omans Slath8956 - your conjecture would be less distressing if you weren't naked and typing one-handed, TYVM. See a psych

Posted by Frank G 2026-03-16 17:33|| 2026-03-16 17:33|| Front Page Top

14 the fact that we killed millions of them with nuclear weapons

Only 150,000-246,000 total in Nagasaki and Hiroshima together, my dear.

Posted by trailing wife 2026-03-16 20:47|| 2026-03-16 20:47|| Front Page Top

15 Neierh were indicted by any court. Both went on to stallar post-war careers. LeMay founded SAC and stood ready to turn the communists into glowing ash the moment the balloon went up. NATO's defense in Europe was built on first use of nuclear weapons. Stop pretending these ideas are new. When civilization is under threat, civilized men do what's necessary to save civilization.
Col. Jessup: YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
[pauses]
Col. Jessup: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know; that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, *saves lives*. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a *damn* what you think you are entitled to!
-- A Few Good Men

Posted by Omans Slath8956 2026-03-16 21:52|| 2026-03-16 21:52|| Front Page Top

23:11 trailing wife
21:52 Omans Slath8956
21:45 Omans Slath8956
21:28 Grom the Affective
21:23 NN2N1
20:47 trailing wife
20:35 trailing wife
20:34 trailing wife
20:20 Woodrow
18:10 Clem+Elmish4239
18:04 Frank G
18:02 Frank G
18:02 DarthVader
17:58 Frank G
17:48 Abu Uluque
17:38 Chantry
17:33 SteveS
17:33 Frank G
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17:25 swksvolFF
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16:50 Abu Uluque
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