oldage Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Just heard the sad news that Robert McNamara has died at the age of 93. Many of you may not have heard of McNamara before but he was the secretery of defence under Kennedy and Johnson and later the head of the world bank. McNamara was a controversial figure but was an incredibly smart, rational and honest man. He later became a strong critic of the U.S.'s nuclear proliferation, military spending and the Vietnam war. If only someone like him had been present in the U.S. administration in the last decade perhaps many of the recent calamitys in U.S. foreign policies could have been avoided. So R.I.P. to a truly great man. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8136595.stm "Proportionality should be a guideline in war. Killing 50% to 90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional, in the minds of some people, to the objectives we were trying to achieve. LeMay said, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?" "What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe we should ever apply that economic, political, or military power unilaterally. If we had followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn't have been there! None of our allies supported us; not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning." "I want to say, and this is very important: at the end we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war. We came that close to nuclear war at the end. Rational individuals: Kennedy was rational; Khrushchev was rational; Castro was rational. Rational individuals came that close to total destruction of their societies. And that danger exists today. There'll be no learning period with nuclear weapons. You make one mistake and you're going to destroy nations" "At my age, 85, I'm at age where I can look back and derive some conclusions about my actions. My rule has been try to learn, try to understand what happened. Develop the lessons and pass them on." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-King Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 He's always been one of my favorite historical figures, his thoughts and musings were always dripping with logic and rationality. RIP to a truly great man. |PropagandaIncorporated:|: Steam:|: DeviantArt:|: Last.FM| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breaking Bohan Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 OMG this sucks I recommend everyone rent movie "The Fog of War" which is a documentary of his life - which is really amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_bungle Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Wow, the Grim Reaper is having a great time. Though I've never heard of the man myself tbh, RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezim Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Wow, the Grim Reaper is having a great time. oMG nOt agaIn lmfao i guiss the grem ripPer reaLLY hatES faMouS Pplz lolll For the love of Christ, the man died at 93. How is this so f*cking surprising? Oh but I'm sure you'll live to be over 150. No disrespect given but it's getting kind of annoying seeing people mention that. People die every second, it's normal. R.I.P. Robert McNamara. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star-Lord Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Wow! 93, he lived a long life. R.I.P @Stink_Fist lol! Yea! Mr. Reaper is working overtime these days...must be the economy,even he is hurting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnorg Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 For the love of Christ, the man died at 93. How is this so f*cking surprising? Oh but I'm sure you'll live to be over 150. With modern medecine, I'm sure quite a few of Generation Y are going to hit 150. McNamara is a quotemachine, I've landed a few As due to him. RIP and all that jazz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezim Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 For the love of Christ, the man died at 93. How is this so f*cking surprising? Oh but I'm sure you'll live to be over 150. With modern medecine, I'm sure quite a few of Generation Y are going to hit 150. There is stuff out there that scientists think will help you live on forever. But at the moment the life expectancy is around 70-80 years of age so it's no surprise if someone dies at 93. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnorg Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 For the love of Christ, the man died at 93. How is this so f*cking surprising? Oh but I'm sure you'll live to be over 150. With modern medecine, I'm sure quite a few of Generation Y are going to hit 150. There is stuff out there that scientists think will help you live on forever. But at the moment the life expectancy is around 70-80 years of age so it's no surprise if someone dies at 93. Ya, I know. I was just being a smartass. When our time comes to die though we'll be well over 100. Unless you're obese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayM Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Never heard of him myself but reading that quote he seemed like a very intelligent, insightful man. I may look into him a bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breaking Bohan Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I wonder what he's doing right now? The country needs more people like him to win the War on Terror! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunk Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Even though my feeble young mind has never heard of him, I guess I have to follow the trend and say R.I.P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John The Grudge Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 OMG this sucks I recommend everyone rent movie "The Fog of War" which is a documentary of his life - which is really amazing. The Fog Of War is indeed a brilliant documentary. It blew my mind, McNamara was incredibly open about everything. It was quite moving when he talked about Kennedy, a man he obviously looked up to. The documentary also has an excellent score by Phillip Glass. I thoroughly recommend everbody check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swarz Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I remember McNamara from when I studied the US during Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Always seemed like a really intelligent chap. Just read a little about him - take's alot of guts to admit you were wrong over something as big as the Vietnam War, which he effectively did, even if it was many years later. --- AMF --- -= A joke is a very serious thing - Winston Churchill =- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blitsie Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Shame,at least he lived a long live RIP *Hangs extra garlic on front door* bloody Grim Reaper.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swarz Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 *Hangs extra garlic on front door* bloody Grim Reaper.... Isn't that for vampires? --- AMF --- -= A joke is a very serious thing - Winston Churchill =- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTASIX Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 *Hangs extra garlic on front door* bloody Grim Reaper.... Isn't that for vampires? Now he can eat the garlic while he takes your life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
860 Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 For the love of Christ, the man died at 93. How is this so f*cking surprising? Oh but I'm sure you'll live to be over 150. With modern medecine, I'm sure quite a few of Generation Y are going to hit 150. there´s this ..little girl in america who is 16 years old but still a baby. scientists are trying to find out what makes her stay the same age. imagine if in the future everyone would be in their twenty´s. on topic: this For the love of Christ, the man died at 93. How is this so f*cking surprising? Oh but I'm sure you'll live to be over 150. No disrespect given but it's getting kind of annoying seeing people mention that. People die every second, it's normal. R.I.P. Robert McNamara. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yzzybones Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 ..little girl in america who is 16 years old but still a baby.scientists are trying to find out what makes her stay the same age. imagine if in the future everyone would be in their twenty´s. I heard of her,its really weird. Source Sorry for offtopic,R.I.P. No disrespect but general chat is starting to become something like obituaries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blitsie Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 *Hangs extra garlic on front door* bloody Grim Reaper.... Isn't that for vampires? Now he can eat the garlic while he takes your life *hangs super greasy mc donalds meal next to garlic* there,if the garlic doesn't kill him,the high cholesterol will! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaWJ Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 RIP Mr Mcnamara Read about this honest, sensible man in the history books. Sad thing man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital Murders Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Who? I thought the last person who died on this planet was Michael Jackson...as that's the only death anyone will talk about for the next 3 years. @Jizzim, drug addicts OD everyday, why is it such a surprise that MJ is dead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFatseas Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 In his later years he admitted that he knew some of his (Vietnam) policies were doomed to failure and costing lives yet he still continued to feed our boys into the maw. There are many confirmations of that damning fact. War by quota... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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