Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Pearl Harbor Day Remembered.......by Mustang

Pearl Harbor Day, 2011

Remembrance observations of Japan’s attack on Peal Harbor aren't about any "failure to let go” of something that happened 70 years ago.  After all, if one knows his history, then we ought to conclude that the attack was no more than the Japanese behaving consistently.  Have we forgotten Japan’s sneak attack against the Russians in 1904?  We should recall this historical event to remind us that the world is a dangerous place —we can never be safe within this environment if we continue to choose inept leaders....leaders not unlike Franklin Roosevelt who, in spite of the liberal claims to the contrary, did everything he could to provoke the Japanese into attacking American persons and property in the Pacific. “There is no evidence that Mr. Roosevelt did any such thing,” the Roosevelt fans argue.  This could be true if one ignores the totality of Mr. Roosevelt’s foreign policy from 1933 to 1945.  As with the Japanese, Mr. Roosevelt was also consistent.  His domestic policy was as inept as his foreign policy was.  As a result, Americans suffered far more than was necessary —and for far too long.
 
Unfortunately, Americans have not learned their lessons.  Years ago, when all Americans still officially observed Pearl Harbor Day, we attempted to place blame on Japanese fascism.  Understandably, Japanese-Americans pointed to Roosevelt’s decision to round up their parents and grandparents and place them into concentration camps.  This was not so much the result of the events of World War II as it was typical of the thinking among American progressives.  At the time, most Americans were too easily convinced Japanese-Americans posed a real and present danger to the security of the United States.  Remarkably, they didn’t have concerns about German or Italian Americans, some of whom actually conspired against the United States.  Over time, we evolved into a kinder-gentler, politically correct consortium of dimwits; we decided it is better not to recall Pearl Harbor Day…Sure, there are ceremonies in Hawaii, and a few of us still remember the history, some of us might even remember that day...but ask your children if they know about Pearl Harbor Day. Ask them if it makes them angry that we were attacked like that? 

There is a consequence to not teaching about and remembering the history behind Pearl Harbor Day.  It didn't take us long to forget the day in "infamy" (see the plaque to the left), did it.  And we too easily forget what can happen to us when we choose inept leaders to govern our country.  Since Roosevelt, we’ve had the inept Truman (D) who, beyond conspiring to find homes for high-ranking Nazis, contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans in the Korean War.  Then, there was Lyndon Johnson who enriched himself at the expense of nearly sixty-thousand young Americans in Vietnam.  Bill Clinton opened the door to Islamic attacks, promises of the same by Al Gore and John Kerry, the not quite as dumb George W. Bush, John McCain —whose leadership inspires Sarah Palin and the idly curious, culminating with the inconceivable choice of Barack Obama, a devout communist, as our 44th president.  Electing progressives to high-ranking leadership positions has had unfortunate consequences, beginning with the election of Woodrow Wilson, who along with Hillary Clinton adored Margaret Sanger.

We should not be looking for a perfect man or woman to serve as president.  Doing so is a waste of time and opens the door to distractions.  I should add distractions we cannot afford.  We should be looking for a man or woman who is competent to serve as president, and if this becomes our standard, we must rule out Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, and Jon Huntsman.

Like the owner of this excellent blog, I will vote for Howdy Doody before casting a vote for Barack Obama.  We are having this conversation because we have not learned our lessons since the election of Wilson in 1912.  It means that our ancestors, who gave up their lives in previous wars, died for nothing.  It gives us no joy to note that the sacrifices of our young men and women today continue to reflect the abject failure of our politicians and diplomats.  How have the inept Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton made America safer for the next generation?  When will the American people learn this important lesson?

Let us carefully reflect on this 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor; by electing inept leaders, we have not done our duty as responsible citizens..............Written by Mustang.

Thanks, Mustang, and Semper Fi.  And thanks to our troops everywhere, especially to those who gave up their lives in the sneak attack on December 7, and their families who have lived all these years without them.  God bless them all.
z

30 comments:

Unknown said...

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Silverfiddle said...

Excellent observations as always, Mustang!

sue hanes said...

Thanks Mustang.

Although I wasn't even one year old when the Attacks on Pearl Harbor took place - I have been to the Arizona Memorial.


and for me there are only Two Memorials in this Country.




and the other one is a Wall.

Ducky's here said...

Sorry mustang, but most liberals realize that FDR played his cards masterfully and managed to enter the war when he knew America could emerge dominant with the only economy left standing.

Z said...

SF, truly excellent.

Thanks again, Mustang! People need to learn and get their heads out of the liberal harangues which many people question and understand, don't they. Good one. I hope a lot of people read this and do their own research/thinking.

sue hanes said...

SF - I checked out your really
cool blog and it made me wonder -

what do I have to do to get an
invitation?

sue hanes said...

I'm talking aout Steve Finnell.

Brooke said...

A wonderful post by Mustang!

tha malcontent said...

Amen Z and Mustang, I just got through posting a similar post.
Both these dates Dec.7th and Sept, 11th are days we must never forger and never let our children forget either.
Thank you both Z and Mustang

BB-Idaho said...

Dec 7 is a big day in our little town. Five old Pearl Harbor survivers lived here (two passed away this year), including an
ancient sailor who was stuck in
a sealed compartment of the Oklahma for 32 hours. His ship
went down in 12 minutes, taking
429 officers and men. 3 survivors
received the medal of honor.
...little town, but these old
fellows will have a place of honor
at the wreath ceremony down by the river this morning. F-15 flyovers
and hundreds, me included, will be
there...

Bob said...

My oldest brother, who was MIA in the Pacific long before I was born, was on guard duty at a site overlooking Pearl Harbor. On the morning of the attack, he was able to see the whole thing.

He later wrote a letter to his younger brother, describing the events of that day. We have copies of that letter.

After the attack, he was tired of being confined to base as were all the other service men, and volunteered for a mission on a cargo plane to ferry airplane parts to Christmas Island. The plane got lost, and was running out of fuel when my brother, the radio operator, sent his last emergency transmission.

They never found the plane or any of the crew. My Mom told me that my Dad would go to the train station to look for his first born son among the returning soldiers after WWII.

There is a marker for my brother at the Punchbowl memorial in Hawaii. The memorial is for those who died in the service of their country in the Pacific Theater.

Thanks for your post, Mustang. We must always remember who we are, and what made our nation great.

Average American said...

Thank you Z and Mustang, very important post! Those who forget history are sure to repeat it. I can just picture Iran doing to us what Japan did those 70 years ago and probably on a much worse scale, if the leftards keep running things. You would think that the Eagle had been replaced by the ostrich the way they always have their heads in the sand.

sue hanes said...

Thanks, Bob.

WomanHonorThyself said...

stunning tribute..thank u Z and Mustang! God bless America.:)

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Strategically speaking, the Pearl Harbor attacks were a Japanese intelligence failure. They sought to hit US aircraft carriers that were not there, and failed to destroy the naval and aviation fuel depots there (which would have shut down or severely hampered American fleet operations in the Pacific for likely 2 years).

On the other hand, under the foreign policy of one of America's most incompetent Presidents, Franklin Demento Roosevelt, the Flying Tigers were already in China harassing and attacking Japanese fighter patrols and supply convoys behind the scenes and long before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Roosevelt obviously thought Japan would not attack America over his using the US Army Air Corps to protect his family's heroin smuggling dynasty.

He was wrong.

Z said...

Bob and BB...what precious comments those are; amazing information.

BB...I hope it was a really great day. F-15 flyovers, how cool is THAT?


Bob.....I could cry reading how your father went to the station with hope.....my GOd, if that isn't the most touching story I've heard about a war, I don't know what is.
I'm SO SO sorry for your family's loss. That REALLY touched me.

I had a friend whose brother never came home from WWII; His name was Jimmy and she's dead now, she'd have been 90 now, I think. Imagine that she told me his name about 30 years ago and I'll never forget him.........and I never knew him.
We need to remember them, even if we never knew them. It really moved me that she'd adored her big brother Jimmy so much and I'm very sure, from hearing her talk and his picture still in her living room, she never got over the loss.

We should all do something really nice for a family who's recently lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan.......'just because'


Beamish....is there some truth to your heroin allegation? WOW.
I have heard exactly what you say about Pearl Harbor not being quite the hit Japan wanted; Try telling that to the parents of those poor kids caught totally off guard who'd never marry and have children and a life, right?

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

I'm not trying to take away from the tragedy and horror and viciousness of the Pearl Harbor attacks. I just bristle at it being labelled an "unprovoked attack."

Google "Roosevelt opium empire." The Roosevelts made their money in Asian opium / heroin wars, just as the Kennedy family made their money smuggling whiskey out of Ireland (in diplomatic cargo baggage) during Prohibition.

Pris said...

I was two years old when we were attacked on Dec. 7th. That for me was the beginning of instilling patriotism in me through my formative years.

Soldiers were invited, through the USO, to my grandmother's for Christmas dinners.

My aunts went to USO dances where military troops were home on leave.

When we moved to California, we first lived in a converted barracks in San Diego a city which was filled with sailors all over the place.

When we went to the movies, there was always a newsreel which covered the war, and at school we bought war bond stamps.

There was rationing of gas, sugar, butter etc., and other items. This was just the way it was during the war, and I didn't know anything different, until the war was over.

My parents tried their best to protect me against the worst of the news, and their worries. But even as young as I was I knew if I walked into a room and the conversation stopped, something was up.

I have a lot of memories of those days, and I know that patriotism was a lasting and positive influence, from the support and love of country I experienced from my family, and the country
as a whole.

Today, I wish to say, God bless all those who sacrificed for America, and for freedom.

I hope and pray we can survive today's threats against our freedoms.

We must remember all those brave heroes of the past, and of today, who still sacrifice for America.

God Bless America.

BB-Idaho said...

?? "On the other hand, under the foreign policy of one of America's most incompetent Presidents, Franklin Demento Roosevelt, the Flying Tigers were already in China harassing and attacking Japanese fighter patrols and supply convoys behind the scenes and long before Pearl Harbor was attacked." ??
...Chennault went to FDR in 1940
with his plan for the Tigers. FDR
personally approved the covert group with monies loaned from the US to Chiang. The pilots trained
in Burma and first saw combat on
Dec 20, 1941..20 days AFTER Pearl
Harbor.

Z said...

Beamish, Sorry...I didn't mean to imply you were taking away from the viciousness...I wasn't.

Pris, that would make for a good streak of patriotism! God bless your family for being a good part of the war effort.

BB....eager to hear from Beamish on this.

Fredd said...

The best man at my wedding some time ago was the nephew of a brave seaman who lost his life when his ship, the USS Arizona, was sunk during the attack on that day that 'shall live in infamy.'

We have not forgotten.

We shall never forget.

Always On Watch said...

I'm late getting here: schedule and computer issues.

Anyway, Mustang has written some hard truths in this essay -- truths that do not bode well for the future of our nation.

Yesterday in my middle-school classes, I asked both parents and students the significance of December 7. Only two parents knew the date! None of the students did. How sad is that?

Z said...

Fredd, the pain continues into the next generations, doesn't it....the thought of young men being cut down in the prime of life before they really had a chance of life and the pain their families feel over that seems almost indescribable to me.

My dad had rheumatic fever so badly, 3 times, growing up (once it was a year in bed), and the armed services wouldn't take him. He said it was humiliating to him on a personal level because he wanted to fight for this country and humiliating because he looked perfectly healthy and, living in Troy, NY, a pretty small town where his dad was a big fish in such a small pond that people knew who Dad was, and he felt people wondered why the heck he wasn't serving...when all his fellow RPI students had gone into the service. tough...but at least we got to be his kids; at least he had a happy life with a woman and kids he adored. So many didn't.

Always...TWO ADULTS knew Pearl Harbor's date? HOLY MACKERAL. MY GOD.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

BB-Idaho,

Japan had been at total war with China since July of 1937.

Roosevelt VIOLATED the Neutrality Act and sent the mercenary "American Volunteer Group" combat planes to China to help fight the Japanese and defend China and Burma in April 1941. By September 1941, three months BEFORE Pearl Harbor, this group of American mercenaries operating under the Chinese flag were already attacking Japanese ground forces.

The Flying Tigers saw combat as mercenaries on China's behalf with Japanese forces well before the Pearl Harbor attacks. They saw combat with Japanese forces as properly marked and identified American forces after the Pearl Harbor attacks.

Changing colors didn't change the fact that they were already at war with Japan well before Pearl Harbor.

FDR provoked war with Japan in other ways, with the embargoes on fuel and intransigence in diplomatic talks.

It is widely acknowledged that FDR's intent was to provoke and manuever the Japanese into declaring war on the United States.

And that he did.

Pearl Harbor WAS a sneak attack. It was NOT an "unprovoked" attack, however.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

We didn't have an armada at Pearl Harbor just waiting to become a tourist attraction, after all.

BB-Idaho said...

My sources A , B , C , D and several
others state the Flying Tigers first saw combat against the Japanese on Dec 20, 1941, flying
out of Rangoon. Since I was only 8 months old in Dec 1941, I have to
rely on the sources. The conspiracy/revisionism
'histories' are a bit far afield
for me.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

BB Idaho,

You're being unfair. I didn't say FDR knew Pearl Harbor would happen. I said his policy was to provoke a declaration of war from Japan.

Sending arms and equipment and mercenary combatants into the 2nd Sino-Japanese War to FIGHT THE JAPANESE was as much a provocation as choking off Japan's oil supplies.

The Japanese didn't just up-and-out-of-the-blue decide to cross the Pacific and attack the US Navy massing at Pearl Harbor while bogged down in a war with China for the hell of it.

BB-Idaho said...

Well, Beamish, that may have been a factor. My opinion, for what it's
worth, is that internal Japanese politics (replacement of moderates with militarists, for example), the
reliance on the US for 80% of its oil/our using that as leverage vis a vis Japanese ops in China, exacerbated by the 'Rape of Nanking' et. al. and the Japanese reluctance to quit China..led them
to a policy (The Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere) of absorbing
Malaya/Indonesia for oil/rubber and
other lacking materials. They greatly worried about the US naval
strength and decided to co-opt by
'pre-emptive' attack..thus the
Pearl Harbor operation. Just opinion. BTW, we had a turn out
of over 700 for our little town
ceremony, with the two remaining
PH survivors on hand (the other is
confined by age). The F-15 flyover
out of Mountain Home was was led by
a local USAF captain...and damn, those things are loud at 500 feet
with afterburners. One of our old
PH survivors died a couple months back and his ashes were placed by
the USN through a porthole in the sunken Utah. I've known and worked with alot of WWII vets and it is a given..they still hate the Japs and the Krauts. Sort of an interesting aside..in officer training my TAC ops leader was an
old major who spent the war with
the Chinese Nationalists..he admired their ability to build
a bomber strip entirely with hands, feet and wheelborrows in remarkably short time.
As far as FDR violating the Neutrality Act, we may surmise that
signing off on Lend-Lease for Britain in March 1941 clarified
where the US stood. Inexorable,
inevitable, war was in the air..
rambled on too far, but that's my take, Beamish.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

All that is true, BB Idaho.

The Japanese had two choices: bow to American demands, or fight.

They chose fight, just as FDR's analysts predicted.

Thy just though the hit would come at Midway first, not Pearl Harbor.

From a purely tactical analysis standpoint, attacking Pearl Harbor was a high-risk gamble for the Japanese, especially not knowing where our aircraft carriers were.

Japan saw a vulnerability and exploited it.

They "awakened a sleeping giant," as it were.

Z said...

Beamish, they sure did awaken one.

BB "One of our old
PH survivors died a couple months back and his ashes were placed by
the USN through a porthole in the sunken Utah"

That is astonishing...and so moving. WOW