Remembering Pearl Harbor.....
Today is a day that still lives in infamy. Sixty-two years ago, the United States was ruthlessly, deliberately, deceptively attacked by a rogue state, the islands of Japan. Japan targeted Pearl Harbor, killing over 2400 military and civilian, including 1177 on the USS Arizona.
The American people were outraged. They became mobilized. The "Sleeping Giant" was awakened. No more would America be caught unawares (or so we thought). Hundreds of thousands of men joined the military, including my grandfather and John D., a close family friend. These men in less than five years would literally liberate the world from evil.
The US showed unprecedented resolve. Despite bloody battles like the Kassarine Pass, North Africa campaign, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Saipan, and many others; the American people would not relent in the cause of freedom and justice. Even as we had over 400,000 casualties in brutal bloody fighting(in some battles, over a thousand were killed in a day--contrast that with the reporting today and the casualties we have..this is not to minimize the tragic and noble deaths of our current soldiers, but we have to have some perspective), the American people remembered the cowardly and dastardly deeds of the enemy. We knew we were fighting to defend ourselves and to advance the causes of freedom and democracy. We had been attacked. There was an atrocious evil let loose and we were called on to destroy it and set the captives free. We here at WMD remember the victims of the Pearl Harbor assault, and honor and commemorate the lives given to defeat the forces of evil that launched the attack and others like it. We also honor the men and women, living and dead, who sacrificed so that freedom and democracy would prevail in the wake of Pearl Harbor, and in the cause of liberation of the world from brutal tyranny.
We need to remember Pearl Harbor, not just because of the tragedy then, but to draw inspiration of perseverance in the war on evil we are now facing. We, the young generations of today, had a brutal sneak attack in our own time, one that killed more than at Pearl Harbor, and that killed mostly all civilians, people just living their lives in peace. We need to remember Pearl Harbor to recall how to stand firm, to know how to honor and avenge those who were lost to evil, and we are dealing with evil, not misunderstood fighters.
The evil we face now is the same as the evil faced 62 years ago. It is an evil bent on decimation and destruction of all that it does not like or understand. It feeds on our doubts, it rejoices in our petty squabbling. However, like the brave souls over 60 years ago, we need to move past the appeasing, politics, and such and move toward the defending of freedom and honoring the memory of the 9/11 survivors as well as the sacrifices of those who came before. We need to take the battles to the enemy, as our forebears did, and not let the battles come to us again. We made the mistake of letting history repeat itself, of being caught unawares....We cannot do it again.
We need to realize that we are not just fighting modern terrorists....We are fighting against the evil of oppression, of murderers, which has hidden behind religions and other movements. We must not listen to the voices of those who are misguided or misaligned in this great movement against evil. They were proven wrong in every other war, especially World War II, and they will be proven wrong again. The Tokyo Roses and Hanoi Janes will be with us. We have to ignore their seductions and fight the good fight. We must realize we have been attacked again, by the same type of evil, and we must fight this evil to the end, taking the fight to the enemy. For surely if we do not, more Pearl Harbors and 9/11s are to follow. To not take the fight to the enemy does not honor the victims of either strategy. Cut and run style appeasement diplomacy does nothing but allow evil to incubate. We must fight this evil wherever it may be, so that the world may grow in peace and freedom. If we do otherwise, we don't learn the lesson paid for with the blood of the victims. Stand strong, America!
