DRUMS OF WAR In my lifetime, we have seen how to excite a nation to war coalesce emotions, anger hate, awaken patriotism to blind rage, calculating death destruction: First Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, 5:50 a.m. the Japanese fleet of 6 carriers was 220 mile north of Oahu, “I have brought the task force successfully to the point of attack” radioed the Commander “from now on the burden is on your shoulders.” by 6:00 a.m. the first wave of bombers and Zero fighter was in the air then the second followed by 8:00a.m. as the Star Spangled Banner was being played on the U.S.S. Nevada Japan attacked, first sailors thought it was a spectacular drill, but soon realized a full scale enemy attack. Back in Washington D.C. Roosevelt at 1:47 p.m. Eastern Time, 27 minutes after the first bomb was dropped Frank Knox, Secretary of Navy got the message called the President with the news, being Sunday only a skeleton crew served the White House, but soon all was a buzz by 2:05p.m. Roosevelt called Secretary of War Harry Stimson, a believer that war with Japan was inevitable, who later wrote in his diary “a relief that the indecision was over that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.” a terrible moral problem had been solved by a ghastly, destructive, death dealing event. Second: Korea and Vietnam The end of World War II brought the fear of Communist world domination, Congress rooted out communists from Hollywood academic post, business and politics. Senator Joseph McCarthy, an extreme Republican conservative, raised the issue of sweeping communists and fellow travelers from public office, business, Universities keeping America safe from this menace. John Birch Societies sprang up, books stirred my parents to donate time and money to the cause. Many politicians were accused of owing their allegiance to foreign ideology or branded as traders. Senator McCarthy, with breathless hyperbole, convinced many. Hearings were set up to roast as many questionable left leaners as possible. All this created suspicion and finger pointing yet McCarthyism, as it came to be known, was actually grounded in deep historical roots of assumptions, judgments, suspicion of radicalism. Democrats were often accused of “selling out” or “leading the country down the road to Socialism” or suggestions of “treason in high places”. Within this flourishing context, the call to stop Communist China and North Korean from taking the Peninsula, General Douglas A. MacArthur in charge, raised an army, Congressional and National support to go to war, to kill gooks. Later to rush in where France had feared to tread. In both wars, the U.S. lost prestige, good men Billions of dollars and valuable resources. Third: Iraq Desert Storm, a short war to stop Saddam Hussein from claiming rights to the oil kingdom protectorate of Kuwait, set the stage for Bush family legacy allegiance to Big oil and its importance to the U.S. economy and friend’s pocket books. September 11, 2001, the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, became the catalyst for bellicose chain reaction, Saudi piolets trained Al Qaeda threats and rhetoric ignored dismissed intentionally, CIA reports shelved the Trade Towers already had been threatened in a failed attempt once, a calm September day was shattered, burned into collective memory as people with blood in their eyes will believe anything, Iraq played no part in the attack only a pack a radical Saudi Arabians, a loyal ally Ben Laden was soon a villain yet Iraq attacked to combat their arsenal of Mass Destruction the interest in oil was carefully not mentioned though the first military objective was to secure the oil fields. Saddam Hussein and his army were soon defeated yet the U.S. had opened the fabled Pandora’s Box, U.S. forces soon were fighting a growing insurgency no welcoming arms, International Jihad against the invader, sectarian war quagmire. © Jan G. Otterstrom F. December 25, 2014
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 00:47:15 +0000
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