To glom on to what you said...
The Nazi’s were a stronger foe for us militarily, but we were still up to the challenge.
The problem with these ISIL guys, is, yes they are incredibly cruel, fanatical and vicious, yet they are not more formidable than the Nazis of old, but WE (the West) are wussies who don’t understand that war with ISIL is a no holds bar, fight to the death. They can fight that way; we cannot.
Rules of engagement, fear of war crimes and court-martials, bad optics to “only cares about winning and staying in power” politicians, a press Hell bent on “proving” US troops are a weird combination of Storm Troopers and Racist Rednecks, and especially the pussification of the American Male by feminists and nanny-staters means ISIL is more dangerous to us than the Nazis.
A don’t even get me started on the war in the Pacific with the Japanese. Our grandfathers fought that one against an even harder and more determined foe than the Nazis. We had to be crueler just to beat ‘em. In many cases, we had to kill all of ‘em because they refused to surrender! Do you think we could fight that way now?
No.
We’d apologize to the Japanese after Pearl Harbor just to show the world we’re not racists.
I’m not so sure.
Between the sense of entitlement and materialism that dominates our present culture, and the lack of regard for life (as demonstrated by the average opinion of “under 40’s” regarding abortion), once ISIL begins cutting hard into our lifestyle*, I think they will be dealt with harshly. However, that likely won’t happen until ISIL has the strength to cause us many more combat (and other?) deaths than should have ever happened.
*If, indeed, they choose to do so, by disrupting oil supplies and the world economy. They might just be smart enough to at some point consolidate what they have won, offering cease fires and so on, and then make incremental moves so as to not trigger heavy duty Western or other**responses. However, judging by the radicalism displayed so far, I count this as “not probable” (but still possible).
**I would also note the VERY substantial military buildup of the Saudis in recent years. (#4 in the world in military spending in 2013.) If Saudi judges ISIL an existential threat, ISIL will have an existential threat to themselves to worry about.
Well... We were pretty lucky early on to not be signing some sort of truce / armistice. It's not just that our carriers were not @ Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked: Not too long after, even most of our carriers were sunk or out of action / being repaired. If the Japanese had not made tactical & strategic errors (basically, they should have been more agressive) we might have been in a world of trouble in the Pacific.