Remember Pearl Harbor? (Oliver North)

Creators Syndicate ^ | December 9, 2011 | Oliver North

[jazusamo]

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Seventy years ago this week, Japanese Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida led an airborne strike force of 49 "Kate" bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 51 "Val" dive bombers and 43 "Zeke" fighters on the first wave of an attack on Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War II. At 9:45 that terrible Sunday morning, a second wave of 167 attack aircraft added to the devastation. By the time the surprise attack was over, 3,581 Americans were dead or wounded; the largest naval anchorage in the Pacific was littered with sunken and burning U.S. warships; the best dry dock and ship repair facilities west of California were in shambles; and less than 25 percent of U.S. military aircraft based in Hawaii were still operational. The Dec. 7, 1941, attack was but the first blow in a cascade of disasters. The following day, as imperial troops invaded the Philippines, Congress declared war on Japan. On Dec. 11, fascist Italy and then Nazi Germany declared war on the U.S. in support of their Axis partners in Tokyo. By then, nearly a half-million young Americans already had visited military recruiting stations volunteering to fight, and the phrase "Remember Pearl Harbor" was becoming a watchword. When the conflagration finally ended in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, more than 16 million men and women had served in the U.S. armed forces. All of that and more was recounted this week in Hawaii at what is likely to be the last major reunion of those who survived the surprise attack. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was there to thank the handful of survivors gathered near the sunken hull of the USS Arizona — a watery tomb for most of the 1,177 sailors who died aboard the battleship on that "day of infamy." Secretary Panetta's remarks, praising the courage and resolve of those who were there that dreadful day, were appropriate — and predictable. It's what he didn't say that is important. He didn't acknowledge the massive intelligence failures and lack of "situational awareness" in Washington that allowed such a horrific surprise attack to occur. Nor did he mention that America's poor preparations for war resulted in the loss of every engagement with the Japanese from Dec. 7, 1941, until the Battle of Midway, which started June 4, 1942. Absent from reflections on what happened at Pearl Harbor 70 years ago was any acknowledgment of culpability for those in Washington who dismissed Japanese communications intercepted and decrypted at Station HYPO that could have forewarned the defenders in Hawaii and the Philippines. Unmentioned in this week's commemoration were the shortages of weapons, personnel — even searchlights — that prompted commanders to park scores of U.S. aircraft on Oahu wingtip to wingtip so they could be protected from sabotage. No one who spoke at the 70th anniversary ceremonies explained how a paucity of spare parts, fuel and navigation equipment — the consequence of inadequate appropriations — sorely limited how many long-range patrol aircraft could be dispatched simultaneously to provide early warning. Nor did anyone address how President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his closest advisers simply ignored warnings from Dutch and British military officers and his own Pacific Fleet commander, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, about Japanese threats to U.S. security. Perhaps Panetta chose not to mention these matters contributing to the devastation at Pearl Harbor because they would cause Americans to reflect on what is transpiring today in Washington. The Obama administration refuses to identify the clear and present danger that radical Islam poses to the United States. The O-Team still refers to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on Manhattan and the Pentagon — and those who seized United Flight 93 — as "extremists." The administration describes the murder of 13 people at Fort Hood, of which Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused, as "workplace violence." For three years, the Obama White House and State Department have virtually ignored Iranian progress in acquiring nuclear weapons. They filed a "protest" when Iranian agents were caught plotting the assassination of foreign diplomats in our nation's capital. In a manner akin to FDR's dismissing Allied alarms about Japan prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Obama White House discounts warnings from Israel about existential threats from Iran. Having claimed credit for an "Arab Spring," the administration is now mute about the triumph of radical Islamists in last week's Egyptian elections and the brutal Iranian-guided suppression of civil protests in Syria. This week, while the defense secretary was in Hawaii, we learned that the White House vetoed plans by military commanders to recover or destroy an errant remotely piloted aircraft before the Iranians could get their hands on the high-tech device. Meanwhile, the U.S. defense budget is being savaged in Congress. Clearly, Washington has forgotten to "Remember Pearl Harbor."

[jazusamo]

Oliver North couldn't be more right about the Marxist B****** in the White House.

[jazusamo]

OLIVER NORTH PING!

Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.

[Frank_2001]

O came completely out of the Red closet in Kansas with that horrendous speech of his. He is a COMMUNIST. There is NO longer the SLIGHTEST room for doubt!

[Old Sarge]

We are condemned to relive the past, because this nation has forgotten September 11th.

[pfflier]

It is really sad. This was the first Veteran’s day parade in Yuma without Pearl Harbor Survivors. Twenty years ago they filled several cars and vans, then the number began to dwindle.

[jazusamo]

You are both correct and sadly there are few speaking out.

[Graybeard58]

Watching the History Channel last night of the documentary about Pearl Harbor, I learned that Roosevelt had his nose packed with cocaine a big part of the time, even on Dec.7th. and 8th. He had chronic sinusitis and that was the standard treatment for it in those days. The side effect we all know about tended to keep him gay, in the original sense of the word.

[jazusamo]

Thanks, no doubt they’re correct. Wish I’d checked to see if that was on the HC, I’d have tuned in.

[BatGuano]

Concerning the lack of preparation, “search lights” etc., my Uncle Bill was stationed at Schofield Barracks in 1941 and was on a weekend pass when the field was attacked by the Japanese. He returned to the base to man his anti-aircraft gun. As he arrived at the base he remembered that, two weeks before the attack, orders had come from San Francisco to store all amnunition underground. To the day he died he was convinced that there was knowledge of the coming attack. It was FDR’s way to get us into the war.

Read “At Dawn We Slept”, there is a strong case made to support his feelings. My Uncle died before the book was written.

[Graybeard58]

Twenty years ago they filled several cars and vans, then the number began to dwindle.

Yes, it's sad. I enlisted in July '63 and had the honor of actually serving with some WW2 vets, after all, that was only 18 years after the war ended. I don't recall ever meeting any Pearl Harbor vets but I wasn't in the Navy either and the Navy had the most losses at Pearl Harbor.

I had the distinct honor of knowing two old "sarges" who were survivors of the Bataan Death March and subsequently the Japs prisoners of war and I milked them for all the stories I could get out of them.

I also knew former prisoners of war that were held by the Germans. My limited knowledge of conditions brought me to the conclusion that, on the whole, the Germans treated their prisoners much more humanely than the Jap's did. The Jap's P.O.W.s, both hated their former captors with a passion, not so much the German's prisoners. One of the German's prisoners told me that the prisoners reached a point near starvation but the German guards were only a little if any better off than they were.

[jazusamo]

Thanks for that info from your uncle and for his service.

I’ve read similar things over the years and I find it difficult to believe FDR didn’t know the attack was imminent, many in our military sure knew it.

[huldah1776]

So FDR needed to get the sleeping tiger out of bed. What is zero’s excuse? Seems to me he just hates this place and wants to take it down ASAP.

[4yearlurker]

My Uncle Hank was at Pearl Harbor that morning writing out Xmas cards when he heard the Explosions and ran out on the balcony. He told me he saw service men cut in two (from strafing) that were playing volley ball. Uncle Hank has since passed away but I still remember his WW2 stories and that his favorite show was McHales Navy!

[pfflier]

I lived on USAF bases, as a dependent, since 1952 until I enlisted in 1971. I recall the same sentiment from former German POWs. They really didn't harbor much animosity. They would throw a shoe at the TV if Hogan's Heroes was on.

On the other hand, surviving POWs of the Japanese had a seething hatred that could be felt from 100 yards away.

[SLB]

One of my dad's friends was a Japanese POW slave labor camp survivor. He despised Japanese until the day he died. He was a TV/electronic repairman. When Japanese TVs started hitting the market in the late 1960s he refused to work on any of them.

[huldah1776]

“Meanwhile, the U.S. defense budget is being savaged in Congress.” Except the Green part, which is a waste of money.

If going Green isn’t economical it should be dumped and the money put to better use, like new equipment. (I personally love the A-10 how about more of them?)

http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2010/1010_energy/

[jazusamo]

Agreed on the economic feasibility of the greenie movement, it seems everything is 2 or 3 times the money.

Bump for the A-10!

[rockinqsranch]

That’s right, and thanks for the ping to another excellent article by Lt. Col. North.

[ntnychik]

Never forget ping.

[potlatch]

You’re right, we’ll never forget.
I know I made a graphic appropriate for this but can’t find it!