Pearl Harbor Day

Many bloggers will be doing tributes today, which is great, but it'll be depressing to see the comparisons to our current predicament, eg, the "Iraq Surrender Group" report and such.

Here's a reminder of that fateful day. Clicking the pic gets you to a tribute site.
















FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech galvanized the nation and prepared us for the struggle. Here's the last paragraph before he declared war:

With confidence in our armed forces-with the unbounded determination of our people-we will gain the inevitable triumph-so help us God.

What's missing today?

MORE 12/7/06

Heard some discussion on the Hannity radio show about America's lack of, for want of a better term, 'killer instinct'. In other words, the caller thought we should adopt a more Truman-esque policy in regards to the Middle East. But as Hannity pointed out, our respect for human dignity usually leads to an obsession with avoiding collateral damage at all costs, which leaves us vulnerable to those who make their living being ruthless. As we've seen, the result can lead to the embarrassing spectacle of having to call for cleanup artists like James "I told you so" Baker to show us the way out.

Hannity is correct (and by the way, props to him for ripping Tony Snow a new one on his Wednesday show, he deserved it). People still don't recognize the enemy, but he's plainly visible in most every heinous attack.

In the process of vilifying Bush, Bob Woodward inadvertently pointed this out in "State of Denial" by describing a conversation between King Fahd and Saddam after the 1979 Islamist attack in Saudi Arabia:

"Kill those people," Saddam advised Fahd. Fahd said when the militants were arrested, their leaders would be executed and the others would go to jail. "Oh my, I'm worried," Saddam said. "I'm embarrassed by your comments." Fahd asked Saddam what he meant. "In my mind there is no question you are going to kill 500. That's a given. Listen to me carefully, Fahd. Every man in this group who has a brother or father--kill them. Those 500 are a given. But you must spread the fear of God in everything that belongs to them, and that's the only way you can sleep at night."

This was Saddam's way, and no amount of deaths were too many in his quest to protect the empire. Just ask the Halabja survivors, one of whom vividly recalled in testimony today the smell of garlic or apples as Saddam's air force delivered a chemical attack against the Kurds (back before there was any question about the Butcher's WMD arsenal).

THE MEDIA THEN AND NOW 12/7/06

Newspapers were not shy about calling the enemy un-PC-like names back in 1941. Wonder if that drove the liberals crazy back then, too?

LAST 12/7/06

Allah points out the obvious--since when have we waged war in the press or through "Study Groups"? Even a kid playing with a GI Joe knows that's quite ridiculous. We can hope this is nothing but theater designed for the TV public and our enemies. Otherwise, we're doomed.