SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 VS. DECEMBER 7 1941

  Over the years I have listened in amazement as Democrats have blasted George W. Bush for being so unprepared for the attacks on September 11th. Many even accuse him of allowing the attack to happen in order to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. There are many historical precedents in history where a country or military leaders have been surprised in spite of the fact that there were obvious signs everywhere. Hessian General Rall was surprised by Washington at Trenton. Hooker was surprised by Lee at Chancellorsville. Rosecrans by Bragg at Stones River. France by Germany on May 10, 1940. The Soviet Union by Germany on June 22, 1941. MacArthur at Clark Field by the Japanese on December 8, 1941, a full day after Pearl Harbor, and again in November 1950 when he allowed the American army to be ambushed by the Chinese and nearly annihilated. Finally, Franklin Roosevelt by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. I could list many more historical examples but the thing that ties these incidents together is that there were plenty of  red flags that were completely ignored. They all suffered the consequences of their naivete and unpreparedness. I am reminded of the first time I saw the movie the Sixth Sense. During the entire movie I thought that Bruce Willis was alive. Not until the end did I realize that he was a ghost. I was totally shocked by the ending and never saw it coming. The second time that I watched the movie I noticed clues everywhere that I had missed the first time. Democrats are so partisan that they refuse to consider these historical examples that I have listed. It is all about destroying their political enemies like a George W. Bush or a Donald Trump. As long as they have an R in front of their name it is open season. 

  Regardless of who the leader is I try to be fair in my analysis of them. I despised Obama for a multitude of valid reasons but I rejected conspiracy theories that claimed he would institute martial law rather than leave office or that he was going to put conservatives in concentration camps. Franklin Roosevelt is not one of my favorite presidents but I do not believe that he was cold hearted enough allow the attack on Pearl Harbor to happen in order to justify our entry into WW2. Nor could I believe that George W. Bush could be cold hearted enough to allow the attack on September 11th. Roosevelt faced a valid dilemma. He had campaigned for president in 1940 on the promise that he would not send American boys into another foreign war. Roosevelt was compelled to do this because the American people were overwhelmingly against going to war with anyone in 1940. Behind the scenes he knew that something had to be done to stop Hitler. Roosevelt considered Hitler to be the greatest threat to the world and to American welfare. By moral persuasion he hoped to change their minds over the next few months and years. This is why it makes no sense that Roosevelt allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. He did not want to go to war with the Japanese. Roosevelt wanted to go to war with Germany. Americans were fighting mad at the Japanese and even less inclined to fight the Germans after Pearl Harbor. Many sympathized with the plight of Britain but WW1 was still fresh in the minds of most Americans. They did not want to be drawn into another European bloodbath. They had no beef with Germany. Just using common sense think of how many people it would take to conspire to allow an attack like Pearl Harbor or September 11th to occur. Benjamin Franklin said that three can keep a secret as long as two are dead.

  Hitler gave Roosevelt a much needed gift four days after Pearl Harbor. He declared war on the United States ending Roosevelt's dilemma. Outside of invading Russia this was the greatest mistake that Hitler ever made. The Tripartite Pact signed between Japan, Germany and Italy did not require Hitler to declare war on us. He was only bound by treaty to declare war on any country that attacked Japan. In this case Japan was the aggressor. Hitler however was facing defeat at Stalingrad and he was hoping that the Japanese would return the favor by attacking the Soviets.The Soviets would then be caught in a pincers between German and Japanese forces. This proved to be a forlorn hope for two reasons. During the 1930's, before the outbreak of WW2, the Japanese were decisively defeated by the Soviets in a series of border clashes which resulted in a Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact. They didn't want to tangle with the Soviets again. In addition the Japanese were desperate for oil and other raw materials such as rubber. This is why their focus was on conquering the Islands of the Pacific and countries such as Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies, French Indo China and the Philippines just to name a few. The Japanese planned Pearl Harbor because our Navy had to be eliminated as a threat in order to fulfill their goals. In the end the Japanese were the big losers. Although they damaged our Navy they only bought themselves about six months time. This was enough time to conquer much of the Pacific region but they could have had much more time if they had waited until our carriers were docked at Pearl. The carriers were instrumental in winning the war in the Pacific. In addition they did not destroy our ship repair facilities which later raised and repaired every ship but four damaged at Pearl Harbor. Finally, they did not destroy our oil storage facilities located near Hickam. Pearl Harbor was both a tactical and strategic failure for the Japanese. Not to mention that they had awakened a sleeping giant. 

America was able to break the Japanese diplomatic code before the war and we knew that they were going to attack us. We even knew when they would attack. We just didn't know where. American military leaders did not believe that the Japanese had the logistical capability to attack us at Pearl Harbor. The September 11th Commission accused the Bush Administration of a lack of imagination. The Roosevelt Administration was guilty of the same lack of imagination before Pearl Harbor. Their focus was on sabotage there rather than an air attack. This is why our planes were parked so closely together and were sitting ducks for Japanese pilots. Every American installation was warned of an impending attack except for Pearl Harbor. The ionosphere on December 7th made radio messages to Pearl Harbor difficult if not impossible. Some genius in the War Department sent Pearl Harbor a war warning by Western Union. It did not arrive until an hour after the attack began. Prior to September 11th we were receiving all kinds of intelligence that something big was about to happen. Middle Eastern men were learning to fly planes but not interested in learning how to land them. Although terrorists had made the threat to fly a plane loaded with explosives into a building at one point prior to September 11th, no one could ever imagine that terrorists would actually fly civilian airliners into buildings. This was our lack of imagination.