"Pearl Harbor and 9/11 - A Tale of Two Attacks"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“Pearl Harbor and 9/11 – A Tale of Two Attacks”

December 7, 2010

Sixty-nine years ago this date 360 Japanese planes, coming in two waves, attacked Naval installations on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. A little over two hours later there were 2403 dead; eight battleships, including the Arizona on which 1300 sailors and marines died, were sunk or destroyed; three destroyers and three light cruisers were also sunk or destroyed. Of an aircraft fleet of 390 Army and Navy planes, 263 were destroyed or seriously damaged. The Japanese lost less than 100 military personnel, 29 planes, one large submarine and all five midget (two-man) submarines that had been deployed.

Unscathed were America’s three U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers – USS Lexington, USS Enterprise and USS Saratoga, all of which were on maneuvers. Also, miraculously, the base fuel tanks were spared. Unlike today, the enemy in 1942 was easily identifiable and political correctness was not the inhibiting factor it is today. About 405,000 Americans lost their lives during the war – a rate of approximately 300 per day! But government, the media, industry and the people were united on destroying an enemy described by all as evil. Government had no compunction in denying civil rights to Japanese-Americans, nor of executing those found guilty of spying. At briefings, if the government asked that certain information remain confidential, the Press complied. It was a different place and a different time. WikiLeaks would have been unimaginable.

On December 8th, President Roosevelt addressed Congress asking for a declaration of war. It was in that speech that he referred to December 7, as a day “which will live in infamy.”

A little more than nine years ago, the United States suffered another devastating attack – the first on continental United States since the British burned Washington, D.C. during the war of 1812. This time the assault came, not from an easily identifiable country with borders against whom we could issue a declaration of war, but from a terrorist group with links and support from many countries – an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda, headed by a shadowy fugitive, Osama bin Laden. Four planes were hijacked. Two smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth, taken over by passengers who had learned the fate of the other three planes, crashed into a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania killing all on board. Excluding the nineteen terrorists, 2977 people died that day – more than died on December 7, 1941. In contrast to Pearl Harbor, during which 68 civilians died and 2335 members of the armed forces, 9/11 witnessed the death of 2922 civilians and 55 military personnel – all in the Pentagon. This attack was, as former British Tony Blair notes in My Journey, an attack, not just on the U.S., but on “civilization.”

Al-Qaeda had attacked before. On February 23, 1993 a group of Islamic terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda attempted to take down the North Tower of the World Trade Center. During that same year, al-Qaeda took responsibility for an attack on American troops in Mogadishu. They bombed our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August 7, 1998. They were responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole a year before 9/11 on October 12, 2000.

In the thirty months subsequent to 9/11, according to Congressional Research Service and excluding any attacks in Iraq, there were at least ten attacks that killed 510 and injured at least 1867, in countries including Tunisia, Indonesia, Saud Arabia, Turkey and Spain – all attributable to al-Qaeda. In London, on July 7, 2005, al-Qaeda terrorists killed 52. A website called “Infoplease.com” cites 48 instances between September 12, 2001 and December 25, 2009 in which at least 1402 people were killed, victims of al-Qaeda. This enemy is unlike anything we have previously faced. They willfully attack civilians and have no compunction in committing suicide in the process. Their aim is to destroy a way of life alien to their beliefs.

We have now been engaged in this war on Islamic terror for over nine years – only Vietnam lasted longer. There still is no end in sight. The enemy is small in numbers, but mobile and can easily hide in the mountainous regions that lie between Afghanistan and Pakistan, terrorizing the villagers who protect them. They have infinite patience, capable of out-waiting an easily distracted and impatient West. The Investigative Project on Terrorism, which is led by Steve Emerson, cogently argues that there are many Islamic terrorists groups besides al-Qaeda and that the threat for destruction continues to remain high. Without a visible uniformed enemy and with the fortunate absence of attacks here at home, maintaining the electorates’ interest in this War has been difficult. Positing the war has been difficult for politicians, wary of offending the Muslim community and fearful of committing money and troops to a cause for which there seems no end and involving an enemy difficult to identify.

The concept of nation-building, the method preferred by the Bush administration (and endorsed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair) drew unflattering parallels to the imperialism of the late 19th and early 20th century America. A major problem has been the inability for leaders to articulate a cohesive strategy to combat terrorism. A second problem is the knowledge that this war will last a long time and will not end on the deck of the USS Missouri with Osama bin Laden handing over his symbolic sword to his captors. Instead, the enemy resembles the mythical creature, the Lernaean Hydra, the sea creature who would grow two heads when one was cut off. Wrestling this enemy is like trying to hold on to jello – it keeps spilling out of one’s hands.

Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, thousand of young men and women volunteered to fight. The industrial might of the country, which was already provisioning the Allies in Europe, geared up further to combat the evils that were Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, our country solidified behind the President and the words he spontaneously shouted out from the devastation of what had been the towers when a rescue worker called out: “I can’t hear you.” President Bush responded: “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! – and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” But today it seems as if those words have never been spoken.

Fortunately, through a combination of luck and skill, we, in the U.S., have been free from attack for over nine years. Unfortunately, it has created an attitude of apathy, making prosecuting the war against Islamic Terrorism more difficult. And, it costs money. With healthcare we are erecting a European style entitlement system. Yet, unlike Europe, we remain responsible for the defense of the West; thus limiting our options. Nevertheless, December 7, a day that has lived on in “infamy” should be a reminder that our fortune to be Americans is fragile, that there really are those intent on destroying our civilization and that the lack of attacks over the past nine years does not necessarily portend the same for the next decade.