"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan.
The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because
of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional
weapons. ...The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future
are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use
it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of
the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and
wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. We were the
first to have this weapon in our possession, and the first to use
it. There is a practical certainty that potential enemies will have
it in the future and that atomic bombs will some
time be used against us."
-- Admiral William D. Leahy,
-- Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, I Was There, 1950
Behind all the political rhetoric being hurled at us from abroad we are
bringing home one unassailable fact -- [terrorism is] a crime by any civilized
standard, committed against innocent people, away from the scene of political
conflict, and must be dealt with as a crime....
