This week contains the 80th anniversary of the attack
on Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval installation in Hawaii;
the day was yesterday, while today is the 80th anniversary
of the day that the United States formally entered WWII
by declaring war on the Imperial Japan, as it were the
Japanese planes of their air force and navy that attacked us.
Our military didn't hesitate to respond, and after nearly four
full years of fighting against not only the Japanese but
Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy we had defeated the Axis
powers to win the war. Our people had the grit, the deter-
mination, and the will to build their fighting forces at a
breakneck pace to ready to fight our foes. Victory ---
total and absolute --- was the goal; failure was never
an option, nothing less than victory no matter how long
it would take.
Fast forward a few decades, and one sees that we had
walked away from Afghanistan, leaving her army, her
people, and some of our people abandoned and vulnerable
to the Taliban, which quickly blitzed it way over the land
to take control of the beleaguered country. All because
our current president thought it would be politically popular
to bring the troops home after their being away for so long.
Never mind the fact that we had beaten back the terrorist
forces in Afghanistan and were still working with the Afghan
army to get them to be able to fend off their enemies on
their own; sadly, they were not at that point when our troops
were brought home in a swift exit.
Presently, the Communist Chinese have built up and modernized
their navy and have developed a budding nuclear arsenal. Their
navy has surpassed the U.S. Navy as the world's largest navy
(they have had for some years, and still have the world's largest army)
and they are making menacing overtures to Japan, South Korea,
and of course Taiwan. Two survivors of the bombing of the
USS Arizona, which now serves as a monument and has a chapel
just above the waterline to offer up prayers for the rest of the ship's
crew, entombed below in the submerged wreckage. I have a nagging
question: If we were to soon go to war against China, would we
battle on to victory as we did in WWII, or would we just walk away
and go home like we did in Afghanistan? Would the pair of USS
Arizona survivors see us fight as doggedly as we did in their
war, or would they see us leave the region and our allies to what
might be a sorry end, thinking nothing of it? Would they have
a last earthly memory of our being brave and gallant, or would
their final memory in their lives be of their country turning its
back on its duty and its friends?
MEM
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