Speaking Stanley Weintraub, author, "Pearl Harbor at Christmas," at the 70th anniversary, re the burning tragedy of the Churchill visit to stay in the White House through Christmas 1941. The episodes are well known, the drama is long since solved; and yet those days are like a battle of the founders with the forces of Hades itself. How deeply odd that one of the Devils was embraced by FDR and Churchill in order to solve the Hitlerites and the Imperial Japan. Each day, while FDR and Churchill debated and studied, the Japanese were rolling up Bataan and driving the remains of the Philippine forces to the last ditch of Corregidor. The White House mood was shockingly grim. Churchill's exuberance was often ill-advised or bizarre. Every day started with a sense of retreat. Am listening again and again to FDR's speech to Joint Congress. The applause and cheers and huzzahs from the members of Congress (starting :16) are moving and humbling. Gosh, they were scared, angry, resolved, fretful, shocked, eager. I can hear the righteous anger in the cheers. It is good to remind myself, in these grim days of global financial ruin, that such fear at December 1941, or September 2001, or the fall of 2001, is always followed by rallying and purpose. We will do so again. Am unsure if POTUS Obama understand the lesson of disaster. Trust the American people and their representatives, and the next steps will be a march to success. Am told POTUS more isolated than ever before as he starts re-elect march. POTUS well advised to listen to the remaks we have from December 1941. That cheering, frustrated, earnest, furious Congress is what is needed. Who will tale the White House to win Congress to his side?
Am unsure if POTUS Obama understand the lesson of disaster. Trust the American people and their representatives, and the next steps will be a march to success.
Yes, indeed! Without a doubt, FDR’s most salient characteristic was his trust of the common people and their representatives! All the historians
agree!
I can hardly wait to find out where we will march next!
Words and phrases we have not heard in a long time:
"Righteous might" of America. "Treachery" of our enemies.
"So help us, God".
vsk
"Treachery" is right. Who in Washington could possibly have foreseen that the cut-off of 80% of Imperial Japan's oil supply might somehow provoke a military response? What do people think FDR was, anyhow, some kind of psychic?
Say, on a completely unrelated topic, any word on whether the sanctions against Iran are having the desired effect? If they do, I'm sure that all of us will, in a thrilling return to the days of yesteryear, once again have the opportunity to savor the eloquence of our political leaders as we exult in our own self-righteousness. That sort of thing has always been as irresistible to America as crack rock is in the ghetto.
Interesting analysis of Germany's intentions. Like the idea that Germany's principal exports in the near future may be sophisticated weaponry to China.
http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/toward-a-gentler-kinder-german-reich
Anybody care to recommend a good translation of De Toqueville's Democracy in America?
FDR was genuinely stunned by PEarl. So was Eleanor. It did not make Europe easier, though they knew within weeks (after Churchill's visit) that the main theater was Europe. The argument was, you can't win the war in either Theater without Britain. Therefore, start with Europe, win there, then move to Tokyo. The Japanese were a war cult since the 1920s. The conduct in China was demonic. The US fleet was out maneuvered. The Philippines could not be relieved or evacuated. Brutal grim maddening.
FIREFOX AND PODCAST DOWNLOAD PROBLEMS
I have a MacBook Pro and use Firefox for most of my downloads. But in the last several weeks, I've had trouble downloading the JBS podcasts -- either it takes an extremely long time or doesn't download at all.
My solution: Use Safari.
It is inexplicable why Firefox has problems downloading JBS podcasts now, considering Firefox had worked perfectly fine for the last several years.
December 22, 2008
Dear President Bush:
A few short weeks ago the United States marked a terrible milestone, Sixty-Seven years have passed since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the moment the US pledged not only it’s treasure, but its blood in the war effort. My grandfather joined the Army Air Corp soon after that date to be a fighter pilot. Knowing how tough my Grandfather was from that point forward Hitler, Mussolini and Togo should have surrendered. But that was not to be. By the end of WW2 my Grandfather, after spending two years at war would survive, after one year healing up; almost half of his bombing group and the army air core would lose their lives in a violent and lonely death - there were no medics or aid stations at 35,000 feet.
I’m writing you today to remember his and others sacrifice and to contrast that fight with the fight we face today. September 11, 2001, ought to have been a clarion call to fight Islamo based fascism, but it was perverted to fight yet another nebulous war on a concept (poverty, drugs, and now terrorism). My Grandfathers generation would have handled things a bit differently. Grandpa Sol only said three words to me about the war “It was tough . . .” while I was a young boy. It is blind luck that he maintained a daily diary of his experiences, training for, and fighting the war. We are not talking Mark Twain here, but every day he summed up a highlight of his day. I am unable to imagine Grandpa Sol scared in any situation, if there ever was a man who shot straight and spoke the truth, that was grandpa. But one day, only one day, he wrote how he feared he would never see his new borne son and wife again, then crossed the entry out upon rereading the thought. The rest of his diary reveals how he accepted the risk and did what he had to do, like the majority of men and women of that era.
Today we face the same threats we faced then. Our economic interests are threatened by malfeasance from within, and attack from without. Yet, we neither vote out those responsible for it, or the voices that are advocating for fixing it fall on deaf ears. In point of fact, the same people responsible for this nightmare are going to try to fix it. Our national security is threatened every day by a hardened enemy who attack us with AK-47’s and high explosives while we point lawyers and courts at them in an empty effort to alter their evil course. What if on December 8, 1941 FDR rose to the lectern in the well of the Congress and proclaimed “We are gonna sue the pants off Japan!” Our grandparents and parents would have thrown him out of office. FDR, and the people, knew it was time to fight, so we organized an insurmountable fighting force and went to work ending the war in victory.
Our standard of living and global growth permits the vast majority of us to maintain a safe distance from the current fight. As time passes this will not be the case. As happened before will happen again - we will just see it in color, not black and white. Mumbai and other less well known attacks on our Western way of life are having an affect on our behavior. Economically speaking the desire to produce has been crushed. In order to consume what has been produced - a market participant must be productive. They must strive to do something that others find value in whether it is a doctor, teacher, police officer, trash collector, or entrepreneur. That simple notion is about to go on vacation as governments small, and large, begin to shift into high gear and provide goods and services, to those who do not produce to a larger degree than has ever been done before in all of human history, supported by a President who has never run a private business. A horse can carry only so much weight until it is crushed under its burden. Whether what comes is the 70’s or the 30’s, I don’t know, but some amalgam of those days is unavoidable now. The taxpayer and the private economy is the horse, and the horse is about to crap out.
I’m blessed to have two hero’s in my life, my father and my grandfather. My grandfather was a hero who did what he had to do in the war, and a good man who worked hard every day to provide for his family while in great pain after the war; and every December Seventh I reflect on how that day changed the course of my family history. Grandpa Sol did not realize his dream of being a fighter pilot, the losses being suffered from daylight bombing were too great, and gunners were needed to protect the bombers. My grandfather did not glorify his bronze stars, or purple heart, or the ME-109 airplane he shot down, and the countless others he kept off the back, the side, and the belly of his B-24 so it could bomb its target. Or reveal the guilt he suffered from being the only survivor of a crash while on a mission, or complain about the Nazi-flak that caused his leg wounds, that never healed until the day he died. We all suffer when our leaders do not learn the lessons of the past, but it is the Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine that suffer most - never forget that. As the son of a violent alcoholic I’ll lay this one on you, “if you think yesterday was bad, try tomorrow.”
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
September 11, 2001, ought to have been a clarion call to fight Islamo based fascism
No, it should have been taken as a clarion call to quit stamping Muslim visas. That would have solved the problem without the expenditure of blood and treasure. Instead, we declared war on a billion people.
FDR was genuinely stunned by PEarl.
Only a cynic would point out that highly successful politicians must be skilled actors. And perhaps it was purely a lucky break that our carriers were elsewhere on December 7.
On a completely unrelated note, there have been some recent developments with regard to the Lusitania, another affair that involved Churchill, oddly enough. It seems that some secrets just can't stay buried, even when they're under 300 feet of water.
Isolationists and home-grown Communists had a lot to do with the degree to which America was reluctant to see what even the stones in the streets could see and, as a result, was almost criminally unprepared for WW2.
Isolationists were America, in the sense that until 1940 the majority of of the people in this country opposed involvement in yet another general European war.
As for American communists (who were of course vocally anti-war until the commencement of Operation Barbarossa), they unconditionally supported Soviet interests over those of this country for what were at bottom eschatological reasons--which, coincidentally enough, also happens to be why in our day Christian Zionists, adherents of one of those strange little religious heresies that spring up in this country from time to time, invariably favor Israel more than they do this country, a bit of theological idiocy that Neocons, who view them with well-deserved contempt, exploit. It remains an open question whether another war with a roman numeral after it will be the outcome, however. "Signs point to yes," according to my Magic 8-Ball.
US had to fight in Europe first, the risk of losing Britain to the Nazis would have changed history. The US Pacific Coast offered no Military advantage to the Japanese Empire, and the Pacific Ocean offered a natural barrier. Sacrificing the Philippines was a poor idea, not sure what could have been done at the time.
Churchill was looking out for his own interests, can't blame him for that. Supposedly Chamberlain offered the Republic of Ireland (EIRE) Northern Ireland if Eire were to join the British during the first days of WW2.
FDR may have known about Pearl, acting on intelligence is not always prudent. Churchill knew Coventry would be carpet bombed in order to preserve the Enigma secrets.
Wo !
A good military response to the blockade would be blockade running and forcing negotiations vs. the stuff at Pearl.
Treachery - could be applied currently to the 9/11 masterminds and operatives, border drug traffickers and people smugglers, Iranian IED manufaturers and deliverers who get them spread out in Iraq and elsewhere. I am wondering if you are comfortable with Iran arming themselves with nukes. Maybe they need a MayDay parade complete with some ICBMs and goose stepping fanatics to wake some people up.
We should dial down the rules of engagement a little and dial up the Righteous Might and let the troops properly defend themselves and offend the enemy. No more arresting our soldiers for giving somone a bloody nose. And this current pres should pardon border agents, not the people he has.
Some Japanese official said something like, "we weren't looking to invade the US Mainland, because a lot of people have guns", or something such...
I like the way Richard Blaine put it, "There are certain parts of New York, Major, that I wouldn't recommend you try to invade.
BHO has done enough bowing and apologizing for America. Enough.
It would be nice to put some tax payers back in the Cabinet to boot.
vsk
Awesome, moving.
vsk
"A good military response to the blockade would be blockade running and forcing negotiations vs. the stuff at Pearl."
Given the US posture in the Asia Pacific region, war with Japan and it's territorial expansionism was not a matter of 'if' but 'when.' In the US and Japan c. 1940 you have two empires with conflicting mutally exclusive ambitions. "Negotiations" were never going to resolve that situation. Contrary to UN's deeply held belief, war is the ONLY answer to some matters. If it hadn't been Pearl Habor, it would have been some other hateful event. We need to keep the historical facts about those times in mind when looking at the Chinese today: same situation (an Asian power wants to control trade and access to sea lanes, America wants them kept open to secure our own and others access to trade and resources), likely the same result. As I wrote back in May when this whole subject of Pearl and who knew what came up in context of the raid on Ben Laden's compound,
Roosevelt and Churchill were in tandem in their negotiations with the Japanese. The big known unknown was whether the Japenese would opt for striking north at Russia, or south at the resource-rich British, Dutch, and American empires. They were in tough negotiations with the Japanese right up to early Dec, even though prospects for a satisfactory outcome were dimming by the minute.
Considering the transaction time between diplomatic efforts, discussions, decisions, and getting in a battle-ready state, I don't see how the necessary allied decisions could have been made prior to the attack on Pearl. A fairly realistic assessment of the situation in the Pacific in the summer of 1941 would have told decision-makers that with a better than 50% probability that Japan would go south, rather than north, the allies' vulnerability was such that war preparations should have begun then. What I'm driving at is, one doesn't have to look for conspiracies to explain why Pearl was caught flat-footed on Dec. 7th. It could all be explained by faulty decision-making in policy circles, men who refused to acknowledge the known facts on the ground while they were hoping to pull out some last-minute peace deal that would force Japan to attack Russia, which they all acknowledged was unlikely as long as Russia was not knocked out as a combatant. They placed their bet and put their money down; they were wrong. Vide Wohlstetter's groundbreaking analysis of the intelligence and decision-making in the days and minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Faulty assesments and wrong-horse betting happen all the time in policy making and policy decisions. Humans are not foresighted enough to consistently make decisions they will not regret later as being inappropriate or wrong-footed. We're just people, not a community of seers. Do not attribute to malice that which can be explained as stupidity.
"We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction!"
True.
vsk
BTW, I forgot to give a HT to you for the Rick Blaine quote. Love it!
re Rick's comment to Major Strasser
In the early 70's when the Nazi's were marching in Skolie, a black TV reporter interviewed the leader of the Nazis. After a spew of bombast the Nazi looked at the reporter and sneered "And when we finish in Skokie, we're gonna come down to the South Side and march down Stoney Island Blvd.!" 'The reporter could barely contain his laughter, "You be sure and tell me when you're coming cause I definitely don't want to miss that."
Laughed my way off the couch.