Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

December 07, 2006

Remember Pearl Harbor Day

It was 65 years ago today, early on a Sunday morning, that Japanese aircraft bombed the US fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack, which lasted an hour, killed 2,388 people. It was this unprovoked attack that triggered the United States' entrance into World War II. (Unprovoked attack...why does that phrase sound so modern?)

There are plenty of stories on the web today. Click here, here, and here for a few of them.

We had the Greatest Generation both fighting in that deadly war and supporting the troops at home. Today, we have the Lamest Generation trying desperately to duck its collective head into the sand as they take potshots at our military. As we remember the sacrifices made by our WWII veterans, let's also take a moment to remember what they fought for, and think about our own commitment to the different, but no less deadly, dangers we face today.

UPDATE: Victor Hansen has written a must-read article about Pearl Harbor and how it relates to today's GWOT. This passage jumped out at me:

But there are significant differences between the “global war on terror” and World War II that do explain why victory is taking so much longer this time.

The most obvious is that, against Japan and Germany, we faced easily identifiable nation states with conventional militaries. Today’s terrorists blend in with civilians, and it’s hard to tie them to their patron governments or enablers in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Pakistan, who all deny any culpability. We also tread carefully in an age of ubiquitous frightening weapons, when any war at any time might without much warning bring in a nuclear, non-democratic belligerent.

Powerline and
The Radio Patriots have more.

Remembering Pearl Harbor.