(USS Shaw exploding during attack on Pearl Harbor.)

December 7, 1941, the Japanese sneak attacked Pearl Harbor and thus began World War II, arguably the last war we ever won. The architect of the attack, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, is quoted (possible fabrication) as saying that he feared, "all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." Well, I fear that the giant is either now dead or so drugged up on ignorance and self-absorption that he can no longer be awakened.

In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, all of America put 100% effort behind striking back with all and every force available to kill the enemy, take its land, and obtain victory. No one asked how long it would take or what our exit strategy was. It would take as long as needed and our exist strategy was the elimination or unconditional surrender of the enemy...their choice. And then, after absolute victory was achieved, how long did we remain in Germany and Japan? Hint, we currently have 27 military bases in Germany and 9 in Japan. Did anyone ever suggest we vacate Germany and let them fight their own potential battles with their neighbors...the Soviets?

And how did the media, so responsible for forming popular opinion respond? Did the media report nightly U.S. soldier and foreign civilian casualties? Was news footage of less than honorable acts committed by American soldiers replayed in the media over and over and over and over again? Did the media focus on instances where American soldiers where horribly ill equipped to fight? Did the media meet with Nazi and Imperial leaders and broadcast their propaganda messages?

In the Battle of Normandy 54,000 Allied soldiers were killed and 209,000 wounded. In taking just one little 8 squire mile island, Iwo Jima, away from the Japanese, 6,821 American soldiers were killed and 20,000 wounded. In response to these horrific losses, did anyone ever suggest that we should cut and run? All told, about 24 million soldiers and 38 million civilians were killed in World War II. Read that last sentence again and think about those numbers for a second. Now, after the war, did any sane person ever utter the notion that we never should have gone to war in the first place and that a world divided between Fascist Germany and Imperial Japan would be preferable?

And, what were we fighting in World War II? Well, obviously we were fighting the blitzkrieg and surprise attacks then, just as we're fighting terrorism now, right? Or, were we not so politically correct then and unafraid to name our enemy: the German Nazi's and the Imperial Japanese. Shouldn't we have been more concerned with the feelings of innocent civilian Germans and Japanese and refused to identify the enemy?

Is there anyone who would not choose to go back in time and take out Hitler when he first reoccupied the Rhineland as part of a diplomatic test in 1936, three years before the outbreak of World War II? I say there are plenty of people that would prefer 62 million dead as the result of WWII rather than taking out a young Hitler testing the waters...they are the same ones that won't put a stop to Islamic Fascism as it tests the waters for international tolerance of its atrocities...of which, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

As the number of Pearl Harbor survivors dwindles down, I am most saddened by that fact that our nation as a whole and the world in general, appear to have learned so little from their sacrifice.