HEROIC "ENOLA GAY" PILOT DIES AT 92

• THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI SAVED 10,000,000 JAPANESE LIVES AND 1,000,000 AMERICAN IVES BECAUSE IT PREVENTED A INVASION OF JAPAN.

• THE PROOF THAT HIROSHIMA WAS NECESSARY AND THAT ALL THE DEATHS THERE (AND AT NAGASAKI) WERE JAPAN'S FAULT IS THE FACT THAT WE HAD TO WAIT UNTIL A WEEK AFTER THE SECOND NUKE WAS DROPPED ON A SECOND CITY FOR JAPAN TO SURRENDER.

• THEREFORE A DEMONSTRATION ON A DESERTED ISLAND WOULDN'T HAVE ACCOMPLISHED A DAMN THING.

• JAPAN IS BETTER OFF TODAY BECAUSE WE DEFEATED THEM.

• THAT'S WHY THE PILOT OF THE ENOLA GAY IS A HERO. HE ACCOMPLISHED A MISSION WHICH ENDED A WAR AGAINST ONE OF THE MOST VICIOUS AND CRIMINAL MILTARIST REGIMES OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

• WE MARK HIS PASSING WITH SADNESS AND PRIDE.

BBC: Hiroshima bomb pilot dies aged 92

General Tibbets always said he had no regrets

General Paul Tibbets the commander of the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in Japan, has died.

Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92.

The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese, with many more dying later.

On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay - named after Tibbet's mother - said they had "no regrets".

A friend of the retired brigadier-general told AP news agency that Paul Tibbets had died after a two-month decline in health.

Gen Tibbets had asked for no funeral nor headstone as he feared opponents of the bombing may use it as a place of protest, the friend, Gerry Newhouse, said.

The bombing of Hiroshima marked the beginning of the end of the war in the Pacific. Japan surrendered shortly after a second bomb was dropped, on Nagasaki, three days later.

On the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, the surviving members of the Enola Gay crew - Gen Tibbets, Theodore J "Dutch" Van Kirk (the navigator) and Morris R Jeppson (weapon test officer) said: "The use of the atomic weapon was a necessary moment in history. We have no regrets".

Gen Tibbets said then: "Thousands of former soldiers and military family members have expressed a particularly touching and personal gratitude suggesting that they might not be alive today had it been necessary to resort to an invasion of the Japanese home islands to end the fighting."

GOD BLESS HIM.

MAY HE REST IN PEACE.

BOTTOM-LINE:

• DURING WW2, ALL THE CASUALTIES IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER - ON OUR SIDE AND ON THE ENEMY'S - WERE HITLER'S FAULT. AND ALL THE CASUALTIES IN THE PACIFIC THEATER- ON OUR SIDE AND ON THE ENEMY'S - WERE THE FAULT OF THE JAPANESE.

• ALL OF OUR BRAVE TROOPS WHO SERVED, KILLED AND DIED IN THAT WAR WERE HEROES.

• WE OWN THEM ALL A HUGE DEBT.

• ESPECIALLY THOSE WHOSE PERSONAL PART IN OUR VICTORY WAS VERY GREAT.

• LIKE TIBBETS.