Posted on 08/03/2004 8:47:30 AM PDT by aculeus
-Eric
Here's a question for all the whiners: which is a harsher situation to be in?
Being compelled by the government to go overseas and fight for three years in some of the bloodiest battles ever fought in human history?
Or being compelled by the government to spend those years as a dirt farmer instead, far away from the violence?
The answer is simple to a non-idiot.
In any case, Islam is not a race, it's a religion. Anyone can join, no messy baptisms or circumcisions needed. All you have to do is profess your belief, and you're in. There's no central registry, so it is impossible to say who is a Muslim.
Was it immoral for FDR to intern some west coast Japanese, in order to protect the vital secret of the broken Magic and Purple codes?
These broken codes shortened WW2 by years, and saved millions of lives, there is NO disagreement on this fact.
If the FBI had rounded up only the Japanese spies and sabateurs whom the broken codes revealed, the secret of the codes would have been revealed to the Japanese. The Japanese would have changed codes, and the war would have dragged on years longer, to an uncertain outcome, with millions more killed.
Go back to Churchill again: was it wrong to allow Coventry to be bombed with no warning? What is worse, to intern some civilians, or to allow a city to be flattened and civilians killed without a warning?
Protecting the secret of the broken codes was more valuable than Coventry, or the internment of the west coast Japanese.
Why is it that some like to go the opposite of Bill Clinton when BC does something wrong? I don't get it. MM is dead wrong.
We primarily have repented of the internment of Japanese Americans due to the heroism of Japanese Americans in combat. They lined up to serve in large numbers and suffered casualties in large numbers. It is that sacrifice that has led us to regret the internment.
Absent that sacrifice, there would have been little reason to regret it. What was wrong, and never rectified, is that the properties of these people should have been held in escrow if possible, or else their losses should have been compensated immediately after the war. The fact that this was not done is unconscionable.
We are presently under attack by muslim fascists who seem to have support among muslim americans. While a few muslims have found their way to the recruiting stations, there has been no great groundswell of patriotic feeling apparent there, and if there were a serious attack on American territory, there will be tremendous pressure to intern or deport them in large numbers.
It may not be fair, but we can apologize after the war is over. War isn't fair.
My father-in-law was interned in California. They basically had everything of value taken away from them unless they could find an honest person to watch it while they were gone. My FIL graduated high school in the camp and then PROMPTLY joined the U.S. Army to fight for his country. He ended up being put into the MIS (Military Intelligence Service) to interview Japanese prisoners of war to see if they had committed war atrocities.
Following the war, my FIL went to college on the GI bill and graduated as an accountant, but nobody would hire him in Los Angeles. He was finally brought on by a Jewish accounting firm.
He worked two jobs to support his family and eventually worked his way up to becoming president of a bank.
This book is idiotic on its face and the author should be ashamed. What a disgrace!
I think the book will force people to reconsider the Left's ridiculous claims that the Patriot Act is identical to FDR's Presidential Order 9066.
Please reply to #6.
It most certainly is NOT the Patriot Act. I agree.
Talk about poetic justice !
For those closed minded defenders of anything that America ever does, don't let the Dems corner the market on criticizing America. I think it should be done by true Americans, not the likes of the Hate America First crowd. I refuse any other comment on the issue except my tagline.
The subject of internment is far more complex than a case of racism. Please respond to #6. Would you prefer that your parents were interned, or blown to bits in Coventry? Keeping the secret of the broken codes was paramount on both sides of the Atlantic.
I know of a bunch of muzzies who should be interred
>>>" Islam is not a race, it's a religion."
Islam is not a religion, it's a hate group.
A hate group that advocates killing those who don't join.
Hoppy
Why don't you peruse the website of the museum that my FIL founded - JANM.
BTW - I have no problems with how the US took on Japan (including the firebombings of Tokyo, etc.) - they were the enemies. Also, I understand the sacrifices of war all too well. My 19 year old uncle was killed in action in Germany two weeks before Germany surrendered.
"The internment of innocent people based solely on their ethnic origin is, to put it mildly, indefensible. "
I think trying to justify the actions or inactions taken in a war 60+ years ago when only a few of us were alive at the time is rather futile and non productive. (But its great fun on Civl War Threads!)
As my mom says, "people today don't understand the fear we had the we might loose the war, especially in the beginning".
Off topic: Had today's media been around during WWII there would have been no allied victory, the war would have ended after our first theatre invasion, defeated by a pacifist and leftist media..."North Africa is a quagmire".
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