Jon Stewart or: Dr. Strangelove Full Title Reference

Last week during a discussion on U.S. interrogation practices with Cliff May of the "Foundation for the Defense of Democracies [sic]" Jon Stewart said that he believed President Harry Truman was a war criminal for authorizing the use of two atomic bombs over Japan. Two days later Stewart called for a do-over on the issue and called it a "stupid thing to say." Is it stupid? The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ultimately killed about 220,000, the majority of which were civilians. It seems pretty clear cut right? I say we all write our elected officials to get this Stewart guy off the air. Maybe it's time we let those with conservative tendencies have their go at comedy news (see "The 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour"). On second thought maybe Stewart's on to something and we should embrace the complexity. Keeping in mind that complexity often doesn't hug back.

Is Mr. Truman a war criminal? Legally a war crime includes the "wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military, or civilian necessity." To be sure historians over the past six decades have debated whether the atomic bombings were a "military necessity." The landscape of the debate (see this for a nice survey) includes the number of U.S. casualties following a land invasion of Japan, the leanings of Emperor Hirohito towards a surrender prior to August 1945, and the ability of Japan to maintain meaningful defense through the end of 1945, the weight placed by the Truman administration on anticipated post-war diplomacy with the Soviets; just to name a few. If he'd been taken to court my guess is that Truman would have been found not-guilty shortly after the Chicago Tribune headline "Truman Found Guilty" was published.

So it's debatable whether Mr. Truman did or did not commit a war crime. Maybe it was just a boring old regular crime. The kind of crime you shrug your shoulders about, say "that's some fucked up shit" and thank The Hague you won. What's that? Not ratified? Sweet.