Infamy, Then and Now
Sixty eight years ago today, Americans suffered a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that brought us into a world war that would last less than four years. This week, after months of debating, we took a step deeper into an eight-year war with no end in sight.
On December 7, 1941, I was a college student with a part-time job in a hospital maternity ward showing fathers their new babies on the other side of a large picture window. Those babies are on Social Security now, grandparents themselves, some of whom may have lost their fathers in World War II, but most of whose lives are not directly affected by this war compared to the one that started on a “date that will live in Infamy.”
That next day, FDR declared that “since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire,” promising that “I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.”
But it did–on September 11, 2001. Infamy comes in more subtle forms this century, and fighting it is like flailing at smoke.
Part of remembering Pearl Harbor today will be nostalgia for a time when we could identify our enemies and confront them head on, instead of becoming lost in the thickets of counterinsurgency and finding ways to “narrow the mission.” If we ever reach V-Day in this war, will we know it when we see it?
Cross-posted from my blog.
8 Responses to “Infamy, Then and Now”
In retrospect, as many have previously pointed out, PH was a brilliant military move. They declared war on the U.S.
9/11 was also a brilliant move and it also declared war, in case we missed the messages of the Cole, the first WTC attack, the embassy attacks in Africa, and perhaps even the Marine Barracks in Lebanon.
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I would just like to point out that it is NOT BRILLIANT to attack someone when their guard is down when you are not considered an enemy or because you attack unarmed people simply living out their daily lives just to point out that you are an enemy. In response, we could have wiped the Japanese and Muslims from the face of the earth had we practiced the same morality. What makes us better, is that we didn’t.
What part of WAR is unclear. Ask some military historians, and I think they will agree that it was brilliant, from a military standpoint only.
It is difficult to take a duck seriously when they make such generalized comments. I take it YOU are not a military expert or an historian. Rather the reference section I should think.
You would be correct, not a historian or military expert. And, a stopped clock has the correct time only twice a day. Since a duck can't be taken seriously, I won't waste your time or mine.
Tactically, yes, as a seperate item from conditions in general, certainly, Overall strategically, No, it was a colossal blunder. It wasn't a blunder of execution though, it was a blunder of intelligence, they underestimated a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.
Seriously, I will accept that addendum.