Parallels In Infamy

Seventy-five years ago today, in 1941, Japanese fighter bombers bombed and strafed the US Navy Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.  President Roosevelt called it a "day that will live in infamy."  Stateside, in response to the attack, Japanese Americans were rounded up and interned in makeshift camps.  Today, some would say it was not our finest hour.  Others would say that it was prudent.  The ensuing war in the Pacific was grueling as America's Navy in that theater was decimated. But it was speedily rebuilt and sent to seek out and destroy Japan's presence with prejudice.  Today in 2016, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Pearl Harbor later this month, becoming Japan’s first leader to do so,to console the souls who died there, he said.  At the end of the war bitter enemies became fast friends.  We drive Toyotas; they play baseball.

Fifteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, another day of infamy perpetrated by a brutal enemy again occurred on US soil.  Nineteen Muslims hijacked four US commercial airliners and crashed them into various targets.  Two hit the twin towers in New York, one crashed into the Pentagon, and the last crashed into a field in Pennsylvania as a result of passengers attempting to retake the aircraft.  All on board perished, and did thousands on the ground.  This time, however, no internment of Muslims took place.  None were rounded up.  President Bush invaded Iraq as a response, a move that left many in doubt as to whether the US had correctly identified the enemy.  Some would say it was not our finest hour.  Others would say it was prudent.  Even today, with the war between western civilization and radical Islam raging, some still deny the nature of this 1,400-year-old conflict.  Islam has become radicalized even further than its violent 7th century tenets dictate, and the West has been lulled into a sense of pacificity to the point of pussyfication.  In stark contrast to the war seventy-five years ago that was decidedly settled within only forty-five months, the war with Islam is in its second millennium, with no clear end in sight.  In fact, Muslim attacks continue on the Kenyan's watch.

What lessons can be learned from that day in December seventy-five years ago?  Well, I can think of at least one.  An enemy who sneak attacks us must be immediately confronted, engaged and defeated.  Beaten.  Destroyed.  Punished.  No negotiation.  No compromise.  No coddling.  Vanquished.   Fought to win.  Only then can we liberate him from his savagery and treachery, and reach out our hand and pull him up.  Like we did then when there's no longer any fight left in him, and he can understand the folly of his brutal beliefs and the futility of his aggressiveness towards the United States of America. 

Then, and only then, can we perhaps become fast friends.