[Loser]

Originally posted by primitive:
While there are several good arguments for dropping the first bomb, can anybody come up with one single decent argument for the second.

Yes, because the Japanese government clearly, directly, and confidently told the American government that it was a fluke, would not work again, and that they would not surrender.

Originally posted by AssHat:
That said, there is no more magnanimous victor than the United States and any country rehabilitated by U.S. force of arms is sure to benefit in the long run.

I wouldn't lean to heavily on that magnanimity, because it really only happened once. The Union crushed the South, abused it and pushed it down. They did this so that the South would not be able to rebel again. The South was still broken fifty years later, and the scars remain today in poverty and racial hatred.

The only time we have rebuilt our conquered enemies was the end of World War Two. That is the only time in history that something like that has happened, but it did not happen for magnanimous reasons, it happened because the American leadership saw another war coming and needed to be ready. And the Third World War did come, we call it the Cold War and we did need those allies we built up. Without them we would not have been able to face the Soviet threat.