Romans in Nova Scotia

[Minimalist]

History Channel does everything but history these days.

[kbs2244]

I am not a fan of the History Channel.
But I may make an exception on this one.
I like the "outsider" aspect.

[uniface]

re. "conspiracy theorizing" as (purported) evidence of an unsound mind :

http://theantimedia.org/10-conspiracy-t ... o-be-true/

Review & re-consider.

(Think BIG secrets can't be kept ? Two word response : Manhattan Project).

[Minimalist]

Guess again, Uni.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/us/12koval.html

He had all-American cover: born in Iowa, college in Manhattan, Army buddies with whom he played baseball.

George Koval also had a secret. During World War II, he was a top Soviet spy, code named Delmar and trained by Stalin’s ruthless bureau of military intelligence.

Atomic spies are old stuff. But historians say Dr. Koval, who died in his 90s last year in Moscow and whose name is just coming to light publicly, was probably one of the most important spies of the 20th century.

On Nov. 2, the Kremlin startled Western scholars by announcing that President Vladimir V. Putin had posthumously given the highest Russian award to a Soviet agent who penetrated the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb.

Some secret.

[uniface]

sigh

The US and the Soviet Union were exchanging info. all along. There were daily flights from Alaska to Siberia throughout the "cold war" era.

Their supposed enmity was a one-hand-washes-the-other arrangement with each serving as the bloodthirsty boogie man to keep their respective populations galvanised into a heightened suggestiblity -- united in the face of a common enemy.

The phrase "Moscow on the Hudson" was not an empty bon mot.

So what else is new ?

[kbs2244]

They are re-starting "The X Files" for this audience.

[Minimalist]

Pearl Harbor?

[Minimalist]

Read John Toland's "The Rising Sun."

Allied commanders knew full well that the Japanese were moving on the Philippines and Malaya. The British went so far as to send HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales out with no viable air cover to stop the southern invasion fleet. Both were sunk by land-based torpedo planes.

American planners had considered the possibility of an air attack on Pearl Harbor much as the British had pulled off on the Italians at Taranto but dismissed it because the depth of Pearl Harbor was too shallow for the use of aerial torpedoes. However, the Japanese knew the depth of the harbor, too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_91_torpedo

The Thunder fish, type 91 torpedo (modification 2), was a shallow water aerial torpedo that was designed for and used in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Conventional torpedoes when launched from aircraft would dive to 100 ft before turning up to hit their targets. The waters of the lagoon at Pearl Harbor were much shallower so wooden fins were added to allow for shallow launching at low altitude.[1]

The name Thunder fish is a literal translation of the Japanese gyorai, meaning "torpedo" (gyo = fish, rai = thunder).

The tactic was practised at a bay on Kyūshū island which resembled Pearl Harbor before being used in the attack in December 1941, launched from "Kate" B5N torpedo bombers.[1] The plan for attack was designed by naval air strategist Minoru Genda for Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the face of opposition from the majority Japanese navy view that victory could be achieved by the "The Great All-Out Battle" tactic of luring United States battleships into a major action at sea

No, the Japs caught us napping because we did not think they had the capability to make the attack. It was not the last time that they surprised us.

[Minimalist]

You lost me with your reasoning, there.

[kbs2244]

I think the currently used word meaning leans more toward the idea of the “official authorities” keeping “secret information” from the general population

[Minimalist]

You lost me with your reasoning, there.

If one party has a plan and keeps it a secret from another party, then the first party has got what we call a 'conspiracy' going.
Or is that too deep...?

I think you are simply misusing the word "conspiracy." We did a much better job keeping the D-Day invasion a secret from the Germans than the Japanese did keeping their war plans from us - we had broken the JN-25 code to a degree and knew something was up. They did, however, maintain radio silence between Nagumo's Kido Butai ( the carrier strike force ) and their headquarters and we lost track of them. But in 1941, battleships were still the queens of the fleet and no one attached a lot of significance to the carriers. If you recall, on December 7 the US had 3 carriers in the Pacific. One (Saratoga) was in San Diego for repairs and the Lexington and Enterprise were out on minor errands delivering aircraft to Wake Island and Midway. The new status of the aircraft carrier only became apparent on December 8th.

As Merriam-Webster notes:
Simple Definition of conspiracy


: a secret plan made by two or more people to do something that is harmful or illegal

: the act of secretly planning to do something that is harmful or illegal

I doubt this is applicable to nations preparing wars. Inter arma enim silent leges [ In times of war the law is silent ] Cicero.

[uniface]

You sound like Clinton.

[Minimalist]

Like the tribunals of Nuremberg, Bosnia/Serbia, Japan, Rwanda, etc.

Yeah.... did you ever notice that it is always the "winners" holding war crimes trials for the "losers." One would think that the "winners" never did anything wrong...


Oh, and....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-bega ... 91153.html

Yes, National Review, We Did Execute Japanese for Waterboarding

[Minimalist]

So much for the "law" then when it comes to warfare then, eh?

Back to Rome for a moment:

“Don’t quote laws to men who have swords”

Gnaeus Pompey

[Minimalist]

What about those who get some lawyer to write that torture is not torture so they can torture people?