Never Forget, Again

" . . . December 7th, 1941, a date that will live in infamy." So spoke President Franklin D. Roosevelt, referring to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 65 years ago today. In just one hour, some 2,403 Americans died in that early morning bombing, 188 planes were destroyed, and 8 battleships sunk, destroyed or crippled. The Amercian Pacific Fleet was nearly wiped out. In the ceremonies that will take place today in Hawaii, 650 survivors and their families will remember the morning of December 7th, those who died, and perhaps will issue a call to this generation, to wake up and resist yet another enemy who has attacked us.

On September 11th, 2001, another sneak attack occurred on US soil. Four commercial airliners were hijacked by Islamic radicals and flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 innocent and unsuspecting Americans lost their lives in this early morning coordinated terrorist act.

The parallels of events leading up to World War II and the present conflicts against terrorism (i.e. Islamic radicalism) are too obvious to ignore. We have our appeasers and castrati now as we did then, calling for "talks" with the enemy. In 1939 Chamberlain returned to Britain with the report that " . . . we can do business with Hitler," despite the fact that eastern Europe was already under siege from the Third Reich.

Today, as we learn of the ISG's recommendations, we can see the enemy is already interpreting this as a sign of weakness on our part, which they most certainly will exploit. We can expect more violence, not less; more demands for land and concessions, not fewer; and more death for infidels as the Islamists have no notion of compromise.

Have we lost the will to respond to our enemy, and to prevail against him with will and resolve, as we did 65 years ago? With the release of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, better named the Iraq Surrender Group, it would seem that we have indeed lost our will to prevail. What we must do is recognize who our enemy is, and how he intends to harm us. No matter how politically incorrect that may be to acknowledge, our sworn enemy is radical Islam, and we must take the fight to him, and destroy him completely. Given the chance, he will certainly do so to us.