December 7th: What didn’t we learn?
Posted By RichC on December 7, 2005
It happened a lifetime ago, but “it is a day that will live in infamy.” December 7, 1941 was the day a surprise attack was made against our country by the empire of Japan. We remember this day but unfortunately did not learn the lesson. Most of us were not alive to remember the heart wrenching shock and sickening feeling when Pearl Harbor was bombed by waves of Japanese carrier planes, but we were for 9/11. Americans could hardly believe it was possible to have suffered such a attack in Hawaii, yet 2,390 men and much of our Pacific fleet layed in ruins. How could it have happened? Didn’t we know of this possible threat?
Fast forward 60 years and September 11th is remembered as a surprise attack too … and by most accounts it was even worse than Pearl Harbor. Not only was 9/11 a surprise attack, but it was an attack using commercial airliners (not military airplanes) against civilians (not targeting warships and sailors). The attack in the Pacific was enough to unite the country against the tyrants of the world; we never gave up and every America saw fighting the enemy as their duty. Are we united today? The enemies of our country are just as real and as motivated to kill Americans as were the Japanese. Todays’ enemies willing to blow themselves up just as some Japanese pilots would kill themselves in order to inflict damage to the US. Whether its the kamikaze suicide pilots of WWII or the Islamic extremist driving truck bombs today, they both targeted killing as many Americans as possible.
Just as we ‘should’ have learned preparedness from Pearl Harbor, we need to learn resolve against the enemy we face today. Both enemies were a threat to our people and way of life; willing terrorist who plot and kill should be a concern on every American’s mind.
We must win.
Our country finished World War II with nothing less than the full and complete surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 that assured not another American would be killed … in some way we need to finalize this war on terror with an equally complete victory. Americans unite to defeat the enemy we face!
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