The use of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were never moral or ethical from where I stand, but I bet you that most of the people who developed those weapons and green-lit their use on Japan were convinced either by themselves or by others that what they were doing was ethical.
I wonder how human beings can convince themselves that killing innocents is ethical?
I even wonder how they could be convinced (and perhaps many were not) that doing the above was "necessary". Blindly following orders? Chauvinism? Fear of court martial? Living up the oath they made?
Once instructed to perform or aid in deeds that they once would have denounced, people often will rationalize their behavior, often citing circumstances that they believe are exceptional to their specific situation.
This is true but I daresay only for so long before the nightmares cropped up and their own shadows began to reveal their selves to them.
Are you just considering the big actions when you say that? Can there be little incidents where you might be just a bit less than ethical?
Such as..? Does calling in sick to work in order to go to the beach count as an unethical incident? Is that the magnitude you're looking at? If so: guilty.
Have you ever felt guilty about that at all? Well actually, if you took and used a sick day that you had coming to you, perhaps not too much so, but if, in so doing, you left your boss kind of in a bind, might that pinch your conscience?
:lol: You are being facetious here, right? Big guy, little guys, where is the dominance? But then again, if there were more than enough of them, you would probably go down!
What do you mean where is the dominance? Dominance is controlling or influencing things.
I see your point but where is the "true" strength in dominating the weak and vulnerable?
.Bigger things can more easily dominate littler things
You mean like a big, burly football player who faints at the sight of a needle?

However, I could think of ways to prevent that-- such as purposely demolishing the structures they’d normally consider sacrosanct – buildings that wouldn’t normally be military targets.
Did you mean to say that wouldn'tnormally be military targets?
If I wanted to prevent any sort of uprising, I’d stamp my feet down on their schools, hospitals, nursing homes. Imagine how powerful a deterrent it could be, if it was made clear that any dissent would result in a giant white sneaker coming down to flatten a school building or the nursing home granny is playing bingo in.![]()
So could you be one of those who refused to drop your bomb on those two cities, except for their military structures? Could you ever wonder about that?