Random Pearl Harbor/ Terrorism Thoughts

A little Pearl Harbor Trivia; Although the death toll at Pearl Harbor was similar to 9/11, the total casualties were much greater. However we have not factored in the number of deaths that have occurred since 9/11 among the responders and other survivors. How many deaths are linked to toxic exposures after the building collapse and during the clean up?

Despite the disaster at Pearl with the destruction of the Navy's Battleship fleet, The "Japs" did themselves a disservice. The American Navy was far inferior to the Japanese in numbers and quality of ships and airplanes. The Isolationist political leaders in The Senate refused to appropriate funds or the military during the 30s and even after war broke out in Europe and the Japanese embarked on their Asian adventure.

The Congressional political leadership was similar to the present administration in the belief that there knowledge and skills were far superior to that of the "little yellow men". We could whip them with one hand ties behind our back to thinking. Sound familiar to Iraq?

The battleships at Pearl were slow, had half the speed of the few carriers we had, 12knots vs 25-30 knots and were underpowered in respect to cannons and their armor was not as protective as the Japanese. Our heavy and light cruisers were no match. Our airplanes were slow and less maneuverable. Not one plane of Torpedo 8 at Midway survived its attack run long enough to launch an effective missile. Our weapons including torpedoes with often defective and even if they made a "hit" would not detonate With the loss of the backbone of the Navy Battle line, we were forced to rapidly build new ships the result being Those first of the North Carolina class that had speeds to be in the same task force as the carriers which were being built to replace the old prewar vessels. The support vessels also were a great improvement over those at the start of the war, and could compete with their Japanese equivalents. New planes that could outfight the Japs also came of the production line.

In 1941 good came out of disaster. We should react the same in our war against the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. However, we should not repeat in fear, the horror of the treatment of Japanese Americans