While we could arguably have avoided fighting Hitler (300K out of 400K servicemen killed were lost fighting the European Axis powers), it's hard to see how we could have avoided fighting the Japanese. Say Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor in advance and had prepared a welcome committee, devastating the Japanese fleet. How would that have changed the fact that the Japanese committed an act of war using large naval forces against a major American installation? And what should the American reaction have been to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines (then US territory) that followed days later? Meekly surrender American men, equipment and territory to the Japanese?
Isolationists like Paul would argue we should have ignored Japanese aggression in Manchuria and never slapped the oil embargo on Imperial Japan. This is why people like Paul tend to blame America first.
Isolationists/libertarians tend to have a very naive view of the world. They think the US should basically react to nothing unless foreign troops literally land boots on our soil. If an ideological foe is arming itself to the teeth, Paul and his minions tend to believe you should just ignore the problem and it will go away. If we have a great relationship with some country that begins gassing it's population of undesirables, we should do nothing and maintain the status quo. Basically, isolationists are naive, not forward looking and do not believe morality should be a factor in foreign policy.
Actually 10 hours later. For all intents and purposes the attacks were simultaneous, proving your point.
No we could not have avoided fighting Hitler nor should we have. The topic of Hitler is a good one in that it separates out the rationale people from the kooks.
FDR was a crypto-communist who went to war against Germany to protect the Soviets, and went to war with and (his successor) nuked Japan for the same reason. Additionally he put the Communists in power in China and Eastern Europe. FGR was a traitor, and the fruits of his treason are still apparent and flourishing both at home and abroad.
I am largely in agreement with you, however, once we had declared war on Japan, “Germany and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WW_2#The_war_becomes_global
It would have been pretty hard to avoid war with Germany, at that point.
I’d also add that it was clear that Japan was building a new empire, and had we not responded to the invasion of the Philippines, we would have thrown good people and a worthy ally* away to, at the time, a vicious monster.
*It’s not widely known, but Filipino guerillas aided by a few U.S. officers and scant U.S. arms support, gave the Japanese fits in the Philippines, contesting the Japanese for control of large chunks of the country by the time McArthur returned... But now I’m O.T. :-)
Exactly. The stupidest thing about the “FDR knew” conspiracy theories is that there was nothing to gain by riding out an attack that one couldn’t get by exposing the plan. We’re talking about a country that went to war based on a telegram suggesting Mexico screw with us; the Congress wouldn’t have cared about a Japanese carrier group out to destroy a large portion of our navy and another task force that would take the Phillipines away? Yeah, sure.