Preserving human life is not the job of the United States military. I honestly don't give a fuck how many civilians they bomb when the war is just, because those civilians are usually supporting your enemy. The job of the US Armed Forces is to defend the United States and its interests.
I'm also not defending Japan. I am saying that often war is brought about when both sides think they're fighting out of self-preservation, and that there are very few "black/white" wars in history. There ARE some, but in the modern day and age the only real reason to want territory is to control oil. The way taxes work, it doesn't make sense to conquer another nation - like Roman expansion.
They attacked because they thought war was inevitable and that a pre-emptive strike would sap our will and capability of fighting.
Did the Japanese start aggressively expanding through Asia because they just felt like it or were their motivations more complex?
Why did Japan invade Manchuria in 1931?
We weren't ANY less guilty of creating an unjust war in our 2003 Invasion of Iraq than the Japanese were in invading Asia. The Iraq War [2003] could be considered a black/white war. And guess what? We weren't on the side of what you could consider "good" because we didn't have a just reason for starting the war. The war was also created because in 2003 (before fracking became widespread) controlling the Iraqi oil fields was deemed important by our leaders.
Yeah, Iraq was probably one of the worst wars we've ever been involved in. Not because 5,500 Americans were killed, with countless others wounded. But because it was bullshit. We wanted something they had. There's a reason the vast majority of veterans from Iraq are pissed off and disenfranchised with our government. They really don't know what it was their brothers were being sacrificed for. They sure as fuck weren't defending freedom.
