Obama's visit to Hiroshima is no apology: Earnest
The upcoming visit to the US-nuked city of Hiroshima should not be interpreted as an apology, the White House says.
Press Secretary Josh Earnest ducked questions Tuesday about whether the US president should apologize for devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs at the end of World War II in 1945 during his planned visit to Japan.
Earnest stated that the US commander-in-chief’s visit should not be considered as an apology but as part of efforts for a world without nukes.
"If people do interpret it that way, they will be interpreting it wrongly," Earnest said.
The first sitting US president’s visit is meant as a "forward-looking signal about his ambition for realizing the goal of a planet without nuclear weapons," Earnest told reporters.
Bald-faced lie
According to Chicago-based author and radio host, Stephen Lendman, Obama’s attempt to appear as a figure against nuclear bombs is nothing but a “bald-faced lie.”
With the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, the US national security policy remains as one that allows “preemptive” use of the weapons.
“This was policy under the Bush administration. Obama’s national security policy is a virtual carbon copy of what Bush said,” Lendman told Press TV in a Tuesday interview.
“The idea that Obama will go to Hiroshima and affirm Americans’ commitment to peace and stability is exactly the opposite of the US policy,” he concluded.
In an earlier statement, the White House said the visit would “highlight [Obama’s] continued commitment to pursuing peace and security in a world without nuclear weapons.”
“The president certainly does understand the United States bears a special responsibility. The United States continues to be the only country to have used nuclear weapons. It means our country bears a special responsibility to lead the world in eliminating them,” Earnest said.
According to Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, the president would not “revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II” during his visit.
Some 140,000 people died on the morning of August 6, 1945, when a US B-29 bomber dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.
Three days later, 70,000 other lives were lost in Nagasaki after a second strike.
“There’s also no diminishing the important contribution of the greatest generation of Americans who didn’t just save the United States, but saved the world, from tyranny,” Earnest added.
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