World war 2

[titanic3]

  Was the war a good thing? I seem to think it was bittersweet.

1. The war killed millions of people.
2. New technology also originated from the war.
3. Most of these inventions was supposed to harm other life forms.
4. We use some of these technologies for civil purposes.

Discuss, what's your point on the war?

[thndregg]

This might be a topic for the O'Club.

[Masherbrum]

  Was the war a good thing? I seem to think it was bittersweet.

1. The war killed millions of people.
2. New technology also originated from the war.
3. Most of these inventions was supposed to harm other life forms.
4. We use some of these technologies for civil purposes.

Discuss, what's your point on the war?

What "inventions"?    Besides "harnessing Atomic Energy", give me "5 more".  Then we can discuss.

[Shane]

while wars generally generate new technologies, they also kill people who may have invented them eventually in peace time.

wars are bad, mmmkay?  but... sometimes unavoidable.  hopefully we'll evolve past them and start kicking alien butt.

[Shane]

What "inventions"?    Besides "harnessing Atomic Energy", give me "5 more".  Then we can discuss.

radar, computers, jeeps, medical advances (probably quite a few), synthetic materials.

but as i mentioned, these probably would have come about eventually anyway.  wars are great accelerators.

[Masherbrum]

radar, computers, jeeps, medical advances (probably quite a few), synthetic materials.

but as i mentioned, these probably would have come about eventually anyway.  wars are great accelerators.

Not YOU, HIM.    He made the "claim", he should have backed it up. 

[Squire]

War always advances technology at a faster pace. However, im not certain you could make a good argument for wars (any wars including WW2) just based on that.

[Shane]

Not YOU, HIM.    He made the "claim", he should have backed it up. 

he's probably too lazy to actually research the term paper he has to do at squeeker high.

 

[Shane]

War always advances technology at a faster pace. However, im not certain you could make a good argument for wars (any wars including WW2) just based on that.

Major Redundant , reporting for duty, sir.

 

[Warspawn]

I'm sure the descendants of millions of people think that WWII was a good thing.  Those that died in the gas chambers certainly would have wanted it started much sooner.

What gets me, is those complaining about the war in Iraq.  Same thing, basically a 20th/21st century Hitler.  How could you live with yourself and not get involved?

Who was it that said, "Fear not the evil that men do, for it is in their nature.  Fear rather, when good men step aside and allow it to occur..."

It's like people not calling 9-1-1 when their neighbor is getting raped.  Get involved...

[BnZ]

It was the most horrible tragedy to ever hit mankind, as far as I know.

Most of the technology developed in WWII would have been developed or was already being developed anyway. You like the roar of big engines, prop planes going 400+mph? Air racers would have done it. Jets? Already on the drawing board before the war. Atomic energy? Sure, it would have been developed, and maybe people would be more comfortable with it today if there had been no Hiroshima.

Another tragic aspect: The war started because of aggression by murderous authoritarian regimes against other nations, Hitler in E Europe and Japan in China and SE Asia. But in both cases, immediately after the war was stopped, E Europe and China fell under equally authoritarian and murderous Communist regimes. So no matter how noble the intentions of the Western Allies during the war, effectively all that was decided was a contest between equally odious regimes, the "winners" being Stalin or Mao, the losers being most of the populations who were suffering from Axis aggression at the beginning of the war. "When wolves and bears fight, no matter who wins, deer still lose." Europe West of Checkpoint Charlie of course, was better off, for that I am thankful. But still, as a crusade against authoritarian evil, WWII strikes me as a job that was only half-done.

[BoilerDown]

  Was the war a good thing? I seem to think it was bittersweet.

1. The war killed millions of people.
2. New technology also originated from the war.
3. Most of these inventions was supposed to harm other life forms.
4. We use some of these technologies for civil purposes.

Discuss, what's your point on the war?

What if Hitler didn't invade anyone... what if he just exterminated all the undesirables until the Master Race was created within Germany's own borders, all the while consolidating his power even more, then developed the jet engine and the atom bomb before anyone else?  If he never invaded anyone through the mid 40s, would the world have done anything, or would they have stood aside until Germany had a huge technological advantage in every area?

[Squire]

Even in Germany, the war caused a huge acceleration in its technology. Without it, the money and motive largely dissapears. Hitler was actually more interested in architecture than jets, or splitting the atom. I doubt any country in the 1940s would have spent the money on a "Manhatten Project" without the prospect of a total war looming at them, as the costs were enourmous. 

[Anaxogoras]

  Was the war a good thing?

Ill-defined question.  Good in what sense?  Desirable?  Improving?  Good in-itself?  I grope at the application of puny words like "good" or "bad" to world-scale historical events that go on for years and kill millions.

[Boxboy]

What "inventions"?    Besides "harnessing Atomic Energy", give me "5 more".  Then we can discuss.

Nylon, quanine, gas operated semiautomactic rifle, jeep, Liberty ships, Female Labor in factories, and a bunch more without looking things up, not sure but I think the G-suit was also during wwII.

A good thing?? well more like unavoidable, but hardly a good thing.