Never Forget
Remembering Pearl Harbor
i remember some WW11 vets at the VFW that had hard memories of that day and that war............called today ‘Slap a Jap Day’, nowadays you have to mention Islam as a religion of peace even though they killed more than that on 9-11. P.C. world gone crazy.....
Not a peep commemorating the beginning of the end of Japanese Imperialism here in Japan. While the anniversaries of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki get national attention (mostly in the form of solemn remembrance), little to no media attention is given to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is a shame because it really is the day Japan’s future was changed forever.
There is however an understated reverence for the United States and the American people. Its hard to get them to admit their country’s post world war II success is directly attributed to American benevolence.
"There are many who draw the similarity between 7-Dec, 1941 and 11-Sep, 2001”. Additionally, there are many that don’t. To equate the two as a rationale for attacking Iraq defies logic. To associate a scheme that was likely produced in a cave in Afghanistan by a wealthy thug as if it were akin to the military threat that existed with Germany and its allies would be rewriting history. To imply that the objectives of the attack on on 12-7 were similar to the objectives of 9-11 simply shows an ignorance of the true objectives. There was one similarity to both attacks. They were both horrific.
Posted by andy42302
12/07/2007 at 10:56 PM
thank you Mr. C.
still on my first cup of coffee, i read that and wondered how he made that jump! you saved me a lot of early morning typing.Mr. Christian, I’m not too big of a guy to admit jumping to conclusions and apparently, I’ve done just that. Accordingly, allow me to apologize for focusing on what’s happened since instead of the contents of your post.
With that said, and staying on topic, I have to question how or why you feel that “our country’s national resolve to defeat the enemy in 1941 lasted years. In 2001, it lasted months. As I recall, the country fully supported the invasion in Afghanistan. This support, as I recall, didn’t dry up before lunch or anytime after. This lack of resolve is not a product of the people being unwilling to avenge our attackers. The support of the people changed when we invaded Iraq, a country that from the President’s own admission had nothing to do with 9/11. The President also said that he had little interest in pursuing the capture of Osama bin Laden. It has also been questioned how we let OBL slip through at Tora Bora. The ongoing abject failures of the administration in a war based on fear mongering in a country that did not attack us, was based on manipulated intelligence, did not produce the WMD, and will forever be questioned does not equate to a people not having the resolve to do what it takes to crush the perpetrators that did in fact attack us.
Mr. Christian, your closing question “How can we defeat an enemy with no timeline when we insist on it being done before lunch?” sets the theme of your post. Perhaps you and differ on who we think attacked us, or perhaps who the enemy is. Would you care to elaborate? Thanks, Andy
Posted by andy42302
12/08/2007 at 10:25 AM
Andy,
You’ve got a..."nuanced" view of these events. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.Great lead on a great site Mr. Christian. Photos that I’ve never seen in my years of studying history.
Mojoe, it fascinates me how so many people can look at something and see what they choose to see instead of what’s actually there. Many will form an opinion based on emotion rather than facts. I consider myself a realist and I try to look at the cards on the table and then deduce what obviously speaks for itself. I will agree with you that Mr. Christian did an excellent job in sharing an impressive and informative site. Andy
Posted by andy42302
12/08/2007 at 11:40 AM
Thank you for your response Mr. Christian and I respect your views. However, you should understand that your urgency to save the world from evil doers is not consistent with the majority of U.S. citizens. Yes, it’s absolutely true that we are hated by most of the middle east. That however, does not make them a credible military threat to the U.S.--as did Germany, Japan, et al. in 1941. They have no army, navy or air force of any strength so that kinda blows that nonsense of “fight them there so we won’t fight them here”. I mean, it’s not as if a multitude of terrorist are going to hop a transatlantic flight to attack us. If our government were truly convinced that that our security was at risk, why have they continued to keep a welcome mat at the Mexican boarders?
The resolve you speak of still exist. It’s just that a scheme that was concocted by 1 man in some cave in a far away country is not a justification to mislead our country into an ongoing war with Iraq that was not remotely associated with it. Iraq was not allies with OBL as Japan was with Hitler. Hitler was indeed a threat and was in pursuit of a world takeover with a building momentum. Saddam was not in that position nor could he ever be. We even promptly and rightfully stopped him from taking Kuwait.
Sadly, we’ve been led astray from our attackers to a country that did not attack us. The loss on 9/11 has been used to implement a culture of fear, aka War On Terror. The Bush administration’s elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America’s psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us. The possibilities of future attacks will always be, regardless of the outcome in Iraq. I hope that if we ever experience such tragedy again, it’ll be with competent leadership. We truly missed a great opportunity after 9/11. It could have resulted in a truly global solidarity against extremism and terrorism. Instead, we were sold on a culture of fear in order for the Bush administration to pursue its goals in removing Saddam (plus, it certainly helped out with his reelection). We gave up our search for Bin Laden as we all know that nabbing OBL would bring on more demands not to stay the course in Iraq. It’s just too easy for the Bush/Chaney team to pull the OBL boogieman out of the closet when needed to defend their prewar hyping of bogus WMD and the nonexistent Saddam connection. Nothing calms the peasants more than a good dose of fear. A global alliance of moderates, including Muslim ones, engaged in a deliberate campaign both to extirpate the specific terrorist networks and to terminate the political conflicts that spawn terrorism would have been more productive than a demagogically proclaimed and largely solitary U.S. “war on terror” against “Islamo-fascism.” But so, the public was sold on “mushroom cloud” fear mongering, terrorist in our taxi cabs, and State of the Union Addresses to distort the truth. The attacks on 9/11 could have been our wake up call and made us a stronger and a more secure nation. Instead, our leaders steered us down a long and dangerous path with little chance of turning things around. They’ve burned the bridge that could have made us stronger. Accordingly, this simply doesn’t set well with the peasants that were mislead. Andy
Posted by andy42302
12/08/2007 at 02:13 PM
12/07/2007 at 05:23 PM
