Posted on 05/15/2009 7:03:16 AM PDT by DFG
On Sept. 12, 2001, it is highly doubtful that any member of Congress was worried that our government would be too harsh in its treatment of terrorists. When countries are threatened, basic survival trumps civil liberties not just for enemy combatants but for citizens as well. Our priorities change.
We saw that with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Days before Japanese warplanes destroyed the U.S. Pacific fleet on Dec. 7, 1941, 80% of Americans did not want to go to war against either Germany or Japan. The day after the attacks, those numbers reversed themselves. Over the next four years, the United States did things it would never do in normal times -- Japanese-Americans were placed in prison camps, press reports and the mail of American soldiers were censored by the military, and the FBI tapped phones without court orders.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
And you could forget about Patton as well.
My next book purchase.
I’ve my dad’s framed retirement letter from USAF and it’s signed by Curtis LeMay or it’s at least his facsimile.
He was a brilliant guy, didn’t he practically invent and build SAC from the ground up?
I always check out my local library first ... saved a bunch of money not having to buy a book I want to read .... and ... Good Morning ... having my morning coffee (7am) checking out the world .... :)
It should always be noted that the American Left, funded and directed by the USSR, had been working the anti-war movement feverishly all through the 20's and 30's. Indeed, they were extremely active until there was an attack, but not Pearl Harbor. They changed 180 degrees when Hitler attacked Stalin. As more and more of the USSR was rolled up during the late summer of '41, they became extremely vocal supporters of going to war against Germany. Thus, the Left was quiet throughout WWII, not because they were American Patriots, but because they were loyal communists.
They immediately resurfaced as isolationists when the war ended and as vocal anti-war activists during Korea.
Bull Halsey, "When I'm done the only place that Japanese will be spoken is Hell."
Yep. He was the father of SAC.
While the incarceration of thousands of Japanese American’s was a violation of their civil rights..evidence exists that overseas Japanese did in fact aid the Japanese war machine with information in Malaysia and elsewhere when the Japanese invaded. We simply could not figure out who might have been a spy.
We have a similiar problem today with the Chinese and some other immigrant groups. It is impossible to know who is giving away our secrets.
Great book out there on Jimmy Stewart's experience with the 8th Air Force in England during the war. (Bomber Pilot) He is just as you would imagine him to be.
Bump
It is said that LeMay’s incendiary bombing prior to Hiroshima actually caused more devastation than the bomb itself.
I miss carpet...
This week’s report in the Washington Times cites a native-born American working for the Pentagon as someone who attempted to sell classfied documents to China.
Actually, many of us in the Chinese community have an inkling who would turn on this country and seldom socialize with them. According to a relative who works for the FBI, there have been certain “tells.” This is how they caught the guy earlier this year in the Chicago suburbs just as he was heading for O’Hare airport. The one-way ticket to Shanghai was probably the most obvious.
Also, Chinese government personnel who are sympathetic with the West as well as people like yours truly have aided local FBI offices with useful information. My reward was a personal tour of FBI HQ by one of the Academy instructors. This along with a personal tour of the Pentagon by the CO of 8th and I will be a highlight in my traveling life.
It cannot be stressed enough. Mr. Kozak stressed context. It is context, not current social standards, that must be examined.
My Grandfather went ashore on D-Day, H-Hour + 1, April 1, 1945 and fought all 85 days of the Okinawa battle with the 6th Marine division. It isn’t what we do know about that battle, but what we don’t know that is so important.
Okinawa authorities estimate 100,000 civilians perished, about 25% of the population. Some estimates put the total civilian loss at 1/3. While Okinawa was Japanese homeland, the Okinawa people were and still are culturally distinct from Japanese. While civilians in Japan were preparing to fight the Western invaders with bamboo spears, the Okinawa people did not. They died as the result of collateral damage, privation, and the murderous intent of their Japanese occupiers. If 25% of the Okinawa people died trying to stay out of the way, what would the death rate be of the true Japanese, armed with bamboo spears, willing to charge .50 cal machineguns? 50%? 75%?
We, Americans, also fail to recognize in our histories that of the 12,000 soldiers, marines and seamen who died at Okinawa, 4900 were Naval casualties. I don’t know the number of British deaths, but the Royal Navy suffered heavy Kamikaze attacks and losses as well as the US Navy. We do little service to our on losses when we forget these.
Finally, while American planners estimated another 1,000,000 American deaths, British planners were estimating their share of the burden would be an additional 500,000. Our other ally, Russia, did invade Japan and, had the war continued, would have wrought great damage to the civilian population; something akin to that reported by John Tolland in his “Last 100 Days” book.
Those who judge these things by today’s understanding are faux partiots.
The NappyOne
Hobson's choice. Thank God LeMay had the courage to make it (I didn't realize that he was only 38, makes me wonder what the heck I've accomplished with my life). Hindsight is always 20-20 in these situations, IMHO.
My Grandfather was glad when they dropped the big one. Meant he could come home from Europe, instead of shipping out direct for Japan.
That's a lot of men to toss into a meatgrinder over a little political correctness.
Churchill and LeMay (and others) got it right. A war isn't won until the enemy is beaten. Arriving at a political solution, just means that you need to revisit the same issues later (see Gulf Wars I+II, North Korea, and countless others). Faster and Cheaper in the long run to take care of the problem while the means to fight is right there and ready to go.
Even though LeMay was nearly 200 years younger than Franklin, Jefferson, or Washington-and in a field (aviation) our Founding Fathers could only dream of-he, Patton, Nimitz, Chesty Puller, etc, would have been instantly recognized as kindred spirits by them. The men who won WWII were cut from the same cloth as the brave men on both sides of the Civil War, or who won the Revolution. And the average American civilian man or woman were on the same page in outlook and capability.
I know we have many of the same great breed in our current military—but now they are the exception, not the rule, and now the popular culture is 180 degrees out from what made us great. Is it any wonder why we’re in the shape we’re in?
These days, pansies like “Weasley” Clark, Merrill McPeak, and Shinseki get promoted to the senior general officer ranks.
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