I've been reading Nicholas Baker's new book, "Human Smoke," and one small thread among many that run through the book is that the United States was building up its forces in the Pacific before WWII in a way that the Japanese interpreted as threatening. Baker certainly doesn't justify the attack on Pearl Harbor and he doesn't claim that Roosevelt was egging the Japanese on - but it's clear that, seen in the light of the Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emptive war, the Japanese were absolutely justified in pre-emptively attacking the threat they perceived from the American military build-up in the Pacific.

So the next time you hear some NeoCon start in about how we have to strike our enemies before they strike us, the proper response is, "Wow, I'm surprised to hear that you are in favor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That's a very radical position." Nothing more need be said. When the Neocon begins huffing and puffing at the insolence of your assertion, you simply explain how the doctrine of pre-emptive attack provides complete justification for such a tactic. Let him try to talk his way out of it. He can't.

Game over. You win.

Last Friday marked the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the American people would "live in infamy."

This is one of several diaries today on Pearl Harbor.  If you're looking for a sugar-coated retrospective, stop reading now.

First, the good news.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was an unmitigated failure.  Of all the ships damaged during the attack, only three were total losses; The Arizona and Utah remain where they sank, and the Oklahoma floundered being towed to the West Coast after re-floating.  All other ships damaged in the attack were repaired and returned to active service within a year.

A portion of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's address to Congress:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

Today we remember those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor 66 years ago.

"I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program. The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it."

-- George W. Bush

This is George Bush talking about Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons program. He explains that a National Intelligence Estimate that says they have no program is a warning that they might have one. Obviously this has to win some sort of award for circular reasoning (come on, how ridiculous is it that he says the fact they don't have one proves they might have one later), but there is one other problem.

The Primary as Re enacted by the Batley Women's Council.

Excerpts and conversations after the flop are predicated upon the premise that President George W Bush has been in office since 1940 and was President when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and when Germany was invading all of Europe with war equipment partly funded by Prescott Bush.  At the time, Herbert Hoover voters were supporters of Germany with Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford huge supporters of the "liberator" who ran Germany.

Sunday, December 7, 1947

Dear Diary,

I remember six years ago if it were yesterday......everyone huddled by the radio to check the news from the Hawaii Territory to see what was happening, and knowing that I'd have to leave my life and enlist, soon.  Three months later, I was in San Diego helping to load ships, and eventually I was a cargomaster.

Now those ships are coming back to the steel mill I work at as scrap.

On today's NYT front page article called As 9/11 Draws Near, a Debate Rises: How Much Tribute Is Enough?:

Few Americans give much thought anymore on Dec. 7 that Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 (the date to live in infamy). Similar subdued attention is paid to other scarring tragedies: the Kennedy assassination (Nov. 22, 1963), Kent State (May 4, 1970), the Oklahoma City bombing (April 19, 1995).

I didn't know that! "Few Americans give much thought anymore" to Pearl Harbor? I must spend too much time on Daily Kos.

While an undergraduate in the 1960's, I took a course on post-Colonial Mexican history.  The professor required each of his students to write a term paper, so I selected the topic "Mexico in World War II." Since 2003, it's occurred to me that this history could have been very different had Bush and Cheney, or two folks equally deceitful, been in office when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor.

U.S.-Mexican relations had begun to decline following the election in 1934 of leftist President Lazaro Cardenas.  Although clearly not a Communist, Cardenas shared with other leftists of the time a naivite for the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin.  Prior to the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression in August of 1939, Cardenas was outspoken in his condemnation of Nazi Germany, but when war broke out shortly after the two dictators reached their Pact, the war for Cardenas became an internal affair between decadent capitalists.  

Wow. Huh, it's amazing to me sometimes how history can deliver such ironies.

I mean, I wonder if it will ever occur to Alberto Gonzales - as he dolefully places his personal mementoes into those cardboard boxes, lingering over a fountain pen here or a paperweight there, as he gazes sadly one last time around his office at the Department of Justice before slowly, deliberately taking the Photos Of Me With Important People down from their proud perches on his walls - I wonder if it will ever occur to him that he and his patrons in the White House weren't the first arrogant, delusional, warmongering, sadistic imperialistic fools to make the mistake of launching a surprise attack against the United States of America on a December 7.

HONOLULU - President Bush on Thursday acknowledged the deep frustration of Pearl Harbor victims and said the federal government shares the blame for the slow recovery.

"I only recently learned of the attacks of December 7, 1941," Bush said before a huge crowd of tourists awaiting transport to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor Naval Station on Oahu, and he gave residents of the island a message: "The federal government knows you exist."

Thereisnospoon’s excellent diary describes just how crazy an attack on Iran would be; there's not a single conceivable reason to do it, even from the narrow perspective of the neocon nuthouse. It just doesn't make sense.

But people are strange beings; a lot of things we do don’t make sense. We do, however, tend to follow patterns.

Here’s one pattern: warmakers losing a war will:

1. Convince themselves that someone else is stopping them from winning, and

2. Compound the disaster by attacking that someone else.

Sound familiar?

When all is said and done both party's are powerless with Bush, the people are the key to getting action on Iraq! Bush won't like it, but the people will pressure Congress to act, do the right thing, and go against him!
         We look for interesting ideas on what to do in Iraq! First, There aren't any good ideas.as I have said from the beginning, there is no winning in Iraq. Bush knows that. I won't get into details now but he knows there is no winning in Iraq. He screwed up. I am sorry primarily because 2 of my sons are in this and I tried to tell them.
         Bush guaranteed a loss across the board when he ignored all advice to the contrary and attacked Iraq too destabilize the middle east in order to establish so he thought, his new order. He will listen to no one. He must stay the course now. He has everything in place for the ultimate goal, Iran.
         There have been some good suggestions from both party's but of course they do not coincide with Bush's plan so every single one of them are dismissed off the cuff and will continue to be unless Congress and the Senate feel the pressure of the people and override Bush and his terrible plan.
                   

Kaua‘i history buff Keith Robinson has tried to solve a mystery that has captured his interest for 55 years. Who was the U.S. military man who came to his family’s island of Ni‘ihau years before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941?

So begins the article in the August 6, 2006 issue of Kauai's The Garden Island News.

I would like a minute to thank all those who contributed to fighting tyranny in WWII, especially the brave Japanese American soldiers from Kauai and the other Hawaiian Islands who fought so valliantly for America. Thanks to our veterans tyranny was stopped and democracy brought to Japan.

Here is the untold story of thwarted invasion which was written almost 65 years after Pearl Harbor.

65 years ago today, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, leading the United States into World War II.

As former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest Generation," said today at ceremonies honoring the dead, "America in an instant became the land of the indivisible. There are so many lessons from that time for our time, none greater than the idea of one nation greater than the sum of its parts."

We who witnessed the attack and aftermath of 9/11 know the feeling; although at that time, it was not only Republicans and Democrats standing and singing together on the steps of the Capitol and throughout the nation but also people around the world standing with us in our moment of terror, despair, and commitment.

Today, in response to the just-released report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which warned that "the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating," President Bush acknowledged to the world that "it's bad in Iraq."

A date which will live in infamy.
And today, I promise

I promise to remember (as best I can) the stories that the Vets told me when I went to play for them at the Veterans Hospital.

I promise to remember (as best I can) the stories that their families told me when I went to play for them.

I promise to remember (as best I can) all that I have read and will read about their sacrifices.

I promise to remember (as best I can) the songs that you liked, so that I may play them in tribute to you.

I promise to remember (as best I can) never to forget.

And I promise to fight for you to thank you for fighting for me.

When I was much younger, I used to go to the VA and play for the patients there.

When I'm able to get my Clarinets and Bass clarinet back, I'll go do that again. Maybe I can make them smile. Maybe my stupid little performance can express how grateful I am for all that they have done.
Maybe, just maybe
It'll help me remember why I must keep fighting.

I will fight for the day when our Veterans no longer have to worry about benefits and future and only have to worry about what their next "request" will be.

So I listened to this morning's press conference between the President and Prime Minister Blair, and there was one particular moment that had me again rushing to find a bedpan or some such bucket to remove what was left of my breakfast from my person.  The irony of this statement was somehow lost on this guy.

And one of the things that has changed for American foreign policy is a threat overseas can now come home to hurt us, and September the 11th should be a wake-up call for the American people to understand what happens if there is violence and safe havens in a part of the world. And what happens is people can die here at home.

Today's the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, you idiot.