December 7th Remembered or Forgotten

Pearl Harbor Day, 2004

Why did the United States go to war with Germany in WWII? Those certainly weren't German Stukas and NAZI pilots over Pearl Harbor on December 7th. It was because Hitler supported Japan-not because they ever attacked us or had plans to do so. Pearl Harbor was specifically the result of a US oil embargo placed upon Japan as a result of the Japanese occupation of formerly French Indochina…an occupation permitted by the Germans who had recently conquered France and controlled its holdings-but the embargo was place upon Japan-not Germany. So, how did the United States interpret the 12/7 attacks as a final step into war with both Japan AND with Germany if Germany had nothing to do with 12/7?

"It is difficult to find a parallel to the unwisdom of the British and the weakness of the French Governments, who none the less reflected the opinion of their Parliaments in this disastrous period. Nor can the United States escape the censure of history. Absorbed in their own affairs and all the abounding interests, activities, and accidents of a free community, they simply gaped at the vast changes which were taking place in Europe and imagined they were none of their concern."
--Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

"By the autumn of 1933 it was plain that neither by precept nor still less by example would the British effort for disarmament succeed. The pacifism of the Labour and Liberal Parties was not effected even by the grave event of the German withdrawl from the League of Nations. Both continued in the name of peace to urge British disarmament, and anyone who differed was called “warmonger” and “scaremonger.” It appeared that their feeling was endorsed by the people, who of course did not understand what was unfolding."
--Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

True, America’s allies were in trouble and asking the U.S. to help them, and a handful of Americans privately did before 1942 (see also Flying Tigers, Eagle Squadron, Hemmingway in Spain etc.). Another interesting aspect is to try and find a smoking gun in pre-Aunschlus Germany. It can't be done. There were violations, but nothing individually causing a war. Even Pearl Harbor was not the single reason for America's entry into WWII. No war should ever start for a single casus belli, and few do (including WWII, 911, and the war in Iraq).

"There was no moment in these sixteen years when the three former allies, or even Britain and France with their associates in Europe, could not in the name of the League of Nations and under its moral and international shield have controlled by mere effort of the will of armed strength of Germany."
--Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

"Until the middle of 1934 control of the events was still largely in the hands of His Majesty’s Government without the risk of war. They could at any time, in concert with France and through the League of Nations, have brought an overwhelming power to bear upon the Hitler Movement, about which Germany was profoundly divided."
--Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

The United States went to war with Germany because Hitler declared war on the US (as had Saddam and Bin Laden both throughout the 1990’s), because Germany and Japan were allies (as were Saddam and Al Queda...see also 1998 indictment of UBL and the 1993 non-aggression agreement between them), and because there were repeated, close, high level TIES between Hitler and Japan (just as there were repeated, close, high level TIES between Saddam and Al Queda). Al Queda is not Japan, but it is a nation without borders (just not a nation-state after the fall of the Taliban).

"Don’t believe that anyone in the world will hinder me in my decisions [to invade Austria and Czechoslovakia]! Italy? I am quite clear that they are with Mussolini: with Italy I am on the closest of terms. England? England will not lift a finger for Austria…And France? Well, two years ago when we marched into the Rhineland with a handful of battalions [breaking the 1991 Treaty of Versailles]-at that moment I risked a great deal. If France had marched then we should have been forced to withdraw….but for France it is too late!"
--Adolph Hitler, 1938

So, on December 11th, 1941, the United States went to war with Germany because Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. Germany had no knowledge or involvement in the 12/7 attacks, was not involved, but Hitler had a relationship with the Japanese, had declared war on the US, and hadn't followed the terms of the Versailles Treaty (ie, the WWI armistice agreement/cease-fire had been broken repeatedly by Hitler). Hitler didn't have an air force (the WMD of the day), but he had the capacity to build one rapidly-as most of Europe would find out by 1943. Following the declarations of war, the United States acted quickly to strike back at the Japanese with the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, and finally halting Japanese free reign of aggression in at the Battle of Midway just 6 months after Pearl Harbor (note: 6 months after the 9/11/01 attacks, the Taliban were routed, Bin Laden was driven from his safe haven and pinned down in the mountains of Pakistan, and Afghanistan was already starting to rebuild).

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
--Edmund Burke

So, where are the historians? Where is the generation that saw the right thing to do, AND had the courage to do it? Half of America has seen the right thing to do (specifically 51%), and has the courage to endure it. The other half prefers to ignore history, seek appeasement and isolationist policies, and to politicize the war on terror. Half the nation sees the history, and has learned from it. The other half continues to replace the cold realities of the 21st Century with political conspiracy theories piled upon each other as their own means of denial.

After awhile, the conspiracies get harder and harder to grasp. Pres Bush (a man constantly painted as a moron by his political opponents) apparently stole the 2000 election by controlling 1/3 of the govt, the Supreme Court, and pulled off the greatest conspiracy in American history. THEN, this alleged Happy-Meal-without-the-fries managed to pull off the greatest conspiracy in the history of man; he created the 911 attacks with the help of the Pakistanis who actually committed them using Saudi hijackers.

Why? So he could invade Afghanistan to get access for the natural gas pipelines to fund his invasion of Iraq which he used to fund his 2004 theft of the Presidential election. One conspiracy alone is tough to realistically put faith in, but for President Bush (purportedly the dullest knife in the drawer) to have pulled off 4 of the greatest conspiracies in the history of man (each one dependent on its predecessor) is just impossible. With four successive coups the odds become exponentially smaller and smaller; 4 of the greatest in mankind? Millions of people are grasping at straws in denial, and there's another 4 years yet to start. Why do they grasp? What DON'T they grasp?

Given the hundreds of thousands of people who have looked into each one of these conspiracies, the independent, foreign, and bi-partisan investigations that have disproved them, the reason that people still cling to them can only be described as political denial, as historical denial, and as proof positive that those who have ignored the lessons in their history classes truly have been doomed to repeat them.

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of NAZI rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old." ie, "Bring em on"
--Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

"Let's Remember Pearl Harbor" was America's battle-cry on 12/8/41....maybe it should be once again?

Now, more than ever, with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand together and succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror.
--John Kerry 11/03/04