We repeat the blog we wrote last year on this date. We think it still is appropriate to reflect on the men and women who died seventy-one years ago. If we forget, we will demean what the gave on that fateful day.
Conservative Tom
Conservative Tom
December 7, 1941
Seventy years ago today the United States was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor which involved us in the Second World War. Thousands of sailors are still entombed in the Arizona and Utah which still lay on the seabed. We should remember these men, not for dying, but for what their deaths means to us today.
At that time, not only was the United States was unprepared for an attack, it was very isolationist. The thinking at that time was this was Europe's or Asia's war and we needed to mind out business. We had not been attacked by Germany, Italy or Japan so "we had no dog in the fight." Additionally, we had depleted our military to the point that soldiers trained with wooden rifles and no new airplanes or ships were in the pipeline. We did not need a large military for the "war to end all wars" (World War I) had ended over 20 years before.
Isolationism might have been alright in 1776, however, it was not in 1941 and definitely not now. We, the United States, are still the big dog and we cannot afford to allow other countries to usurp that role by our inaction or inattention. We cannot afford to be attacked again and to have our military decimated as the Navy was at Pearl. Those men who died, died unnecessarily because our civilian and military leaders were asleep at the switch. They either did not fully understand that a war was coming or cavalierly dismissed the idea.
Let's remember those who still are at Pearl, seventy years later and pledge not to let it happen again.
Conservative Tom
At that time, not only was the United States was unprepared for an attack, it was very isolationist. The thinking at that time was this was Europe's or Asia's war and we needed to mind out business. We had not been attacked by Germany, Italy or Japan so "we had no dog in the fight." Additionally, we had depleted our military to the point that soldiers trained with wooden rifles and no new airplanes or ships were in the pipeline. We did not need a large military for the "war to end all wars" (World War I) had ended over 20 years before.
Isolationism might have been alright in 1776, however, it was not in 1941 and definitely not now. We, the United States, are still the big dog and we cannot afford to allow other countries to usurp that role by our inaction or inattention. We cannot afford to be attacked again and to have our military decimated as the Navy was at Pearl. Those men who died, died unnecessarily because our civilian and military leaders were asleep at the switch. They either did not fully understand that a war was coming or cavalierly dismissed the idea.
Let's remember those who still are at Pearl, seventy years later and pledge not to let it happen again.
Conservative Tom
Isolationism is not the only alternative to interventionism. Ron Paul's non-interventionist foreign policy is a third alternative. It respects the national sovereignty of other countries. It upholds the principle of self-determination of other countries. At the same time, it recognizes the need for a strong military to defend the United States from potential aggressors. It is why I voted for him.
ReplyDelete--David
Loved Dr. Paul's domestic issues but do not agree with his foreign policy.
ReplyDeleteWell, how did your interventionist foreign policy work out in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan -- just to name the most recent examples?
ReplyDeleteI voted for Ron Paul, because I fear we may see more of the same from Obama in Iran, Syria, and who-knows-where in Asia in the next four years.
--David
You lament the decline of America, as if it has nothing to do with the trillions of dollars wasted on military and interventionist foreign policies in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Countries like China are spending only a fraction of their GDP on military, and a much higher percentage than us on science and technology, as we "police the world". Ron Paul is right.
ReplyDelete-- David
America has lost its way since 1950 through both Republican and Democratic administrations. It has been government and social changes that will soon make the US, just another failed country. We probably will be invaded and broken up into parts.
ReplyDelete>America has lost its way since 1950 through both Republican and Democratic administrations.
ReplyDeleteYes, but some administrations were more interventionist than others. I give Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and George H.W. Bush pretty good grades. I give Kennedy/Johnson, Reagan, Clinton, Obama poor grades, and George W. Bush an "F."
> "We probably will be invaded and broken up into parts."
Ha! Only if the aliens arrive from outer space.
--David