Posted on 09/11/2002 6:41:03 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Both were surprise attacks that cost the lives of thousands of Americans. Both attacks brought the United States into wars. But 12 months after Sept. 11, there is little comparison between the state of the nation now, and the way things were a year after Pearl Harbor, analysts said. "Frankly, I think there's been too much groveling in self-pity in the wake of 9-11 of a sort which did not characterize the American response to Pearl Harbor," said Howard Phillips, chairman of the U.S. Constitution Party. A year after Pearl Harbor, the White House didn't even issue a presidential statement or stage a photo op to commemorate an attack that cost the lives of 2,403 Americans and the wounding of 1,178 others. On Dec. 7, 1942, church bells rang at 1:30 p.m., the time of the attack. There were memorials, prayer services and moments of silence. There may have been lesson plans in schools, but large numbers of high school students from 1941 were already wearing their country's uniform in 1942, analysts said. "If you compare where America was a year after Pearl Harbor with where we are today, the transformation within the country is incomparably different in the sense that there's virtually none compared to 1942," said William S. Lind, a counter-terrorism expert with the Free Congress Foundation. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt summed up the feelings of the country in a newspaper column published the day after the one-year anniversary of Pearl Harbor. "First, we must try never to be unprepared again, either mentally or physically, to defend the things in which we believe. Peace is something we want to work for, day in and day out, but we want to work for it with the knowledge that only justice keeps the people of the world at peace," she said. After Pearl Harbor, America fought a very visible war against Germany and Japan. American factories were devoted full-time to the war effort, churning out vital military supplies for Britain and the Soviet Union while manufacturing the ships and subs needed for the war in the Pacific. By December 1942, the United States also had a string of military successes. Under constant attack by U.S. Marines, the Japanese had decided to begin evacuating their positions on Guadalcanal. The United States had won the Battle of Coral Sea and Midway - turning points that halted a Japanese advance. At home, Americans were beginning to feel the pinch of coffee and gasoline rationing. No Comparison This does not compare with the sacrifices Americans have had to make since Sept. 11, analysts point out. To date, 39 U.S. personnel have been killed in the Afghanistan conflict and the only inconvenience to the American public is an occasional alert to a possible threat and longer waits at airports, they said. Indeed, the contrasts between the aftermaths of Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 are more compelling than the parallels, Lind said. "In the one case, our armed forces had an opponent they could fight and in the other case, they don't. So to call what we're doing now a war is almost to render the word meaningless," he said. The Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by the radical Islamic al Qaeda group against primarily civilian targets, resulted in the deaths of 3,025 people. The attacks herald a new kind of warfare by non-state entities which bypass the security apparatus of the target country, Lind said. "In turn, the public has figured out dimly that either we're not at war or we can't wage this kind of war, and to be perfectly honest, except in a few places, life is pretty normal," he said. What is required to win the war on terrorism is the direct opposite of the Bush administration's strategy, Lind said. "We need to say, 'We are no longer interested in messing around in everybody else's business in the world. We do not exist to eliminate evil everywhere in the world ... so if you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. However, if you hit us, the response will be beyond your absolute wildest imaginings,'" he said. A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush announced a new Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security. Many of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were in the United States illegally, and the attacks precipitated action against illegal aliens. During World War II, the United States interned citizens from Axis nations, including about 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans, chiefly on the Pacific coast. Many of the Japanese-Americans who survived were eligible for redress under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Complacency Is Biggest Risk Retired Adm. Thomas Moorer, a former commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet and a witness to the Pearl Harbor attack as a young Navy officer, said the attacks and their aftermath were different in that the Japanese launched a purely military attack with a purely military objective. The Sept. 11 attack, on the other hand, was motivated more by hate, Moorer said. "They were trying to get even, so to speak," he said. "The motivation is jealousy at what the United States has done compared to what they tried to do and failed." Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, a national security analyst, warned that the United States is becoming complacent and in danger of losing the momentum in the war on terrorism it had immediately following Sept. 11. "That to some degree has occurred due to the distractions in India and Pakistan, and also the Israeli-Palestinian situation," he said. "But we've got to continue and pick up momentum once again against states that sponsor terrorism and continuing arrests and dismantling of these terrorist organizations throughout the world, and that's why a part of this is replacing the regime in Iraq," he said. World War II ended just under four years after Pearl Harbor with a cost of about 300,000 U.S. casualties. The war on terrorism, not unlike the Cold War, will be fought behind the scenes and could take a generation to win, analysts predict. Moreover, the United States and its allies likely will suffer setbacks in the course of the conflict. Diplomacy, the maintenance of political alliances and the winning of hearts and minds will be as important as military victories, they said.
There was a direction for our anger and resolve to be pointed...
Now, we are at war with a word... Terrorism...
Who is that? Where are they?
We now have a nebulous enemy, that exists nowhere and everywhere at the same time...
This is the worst enemy to have because there is no direction to go...
There is no direction to project our anger...
And yet that begs the biggest question that hardly anyone has even thought of...
HOW WILL WE EVER KNOW IF WE HAVE DEFEATED THE ENEMY AND WON THIS WAR????????
The only word that seems to be losing right now is...
Freedom...
Michael
Can that be said today? I fear not.
And that is why we are still in incredible, mortal danger from these enemies.
It is quite obvious who the enemy is now.
"There was a direction for our anger and resolve to be pointed..."
There is a direction for our anger and resolve to be pointed--NOW.
"Now, we are at war with a word... Terrorism..."
No, we are at 'war' with Islam. And we are not really at war, since no formal declaration of war was made--or even requested.
"Who is that? Where are they?"
Look at a map. On it you will find:
Saudi Arabia. Egypt. Syria. Libya. Pakistan. Yemen. Sudan. Iraq. Iran.
That ought to do for starters.
--Boris
That may very well be...
But islamic ragheads is not the publicly stated enemy...
In fact, the government has gone out of it's way to eliminate any reference to ragheads or any religion as the enemy...
Just Terrorism...
Oh yeah. I missed this silliness.
We will know when there are no terrorists left.
We will know that when there are no terror-supporting nations left.
We will know that when the terror-supporting nations are cratered, radioactive moonscapes where nothing can live for a thousand years.
Now are things a little clearer for you?
--Boris
No, actually it isn't...
The enemy could be someone, somewhere overseas, or it could be your neighbor down the street...
You'll remember that the terrorists who have acted against us were already here...
There is a direction for our anger and resolve to be pointed--NOW.
Really? I see lot's of finger pointing and lots of disinformation in many different directions...
No, we are at 'war' with Islam. And we are not really at war, since no formal declaration of war was made--or even requested.
I agree with you... But at no time has any agent of the government EVER stated that we are fighting a religion...
They have gone out of their way to state the opposite...
That means something...
Look at a map. On it you will find: Saudi Arabia. Egypt. Syria. Libya. Pakistan. Yemen. Sudan. Iraq. Iran. That ought to do for starters.
Terrorism can be anywhere... So can terrorists...
I'm not sure this will guarantee a win...
But it would definitely create other consequences...
This is the conventional wisdom. I think it is bull. The only difference is the damn media. The vast majority of normal Americans are identical to the vast majority of normal Americans of that generation. Ready to roll.
I think it is just as ridiculous to deify the WWII generation as it is to demonize Americans today. If you want to demonize anyone, demonize the stupid, worthless 1960s-era protest elite who now run the academy and the media. But they comprise, fortunately, only a tiny percentage of the population.
Uh, if you say so...
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