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Zonie63 -> RE: Shadows of Power and the American Decline (7/14/2015 11:25:40 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Real0ne
Kimmel and Short are 100% innocent, FDR and the washington perps guilty as sin, the american people sleeping with eyes wide open.
This is definitely not a clip for anyone with ADD tendencies, but pearl is at the very beginning.
Connecting the dots of americas perpetual need for war;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_gj1uZ6194
That's a long video. Only got through the first half hour of it.
I think there's some truth that Kimmel and Short were unfairly made into fall guys, though I think they at least had an inkling that Pearl Harbor might be attacked. They were aware of the worsening relations with Japan and the military threat, not just to Hawaii but also the Philippines, other US possessions, as well as British, French, and Dutch colonies which were being threatened by the Japanese. Sure, they were getting lots of warnings so they knew something was up, but they couldn't be certain of exactly where and when an attack might take place. And in all fairness, Washington did send warnings to the Pacific commanders so that they would keep their eyes open and be ready for a possible attack, even though they didn't know where, when, or if it would come. Kimmel and Short should have at least known that much. Should they have been on alert and had more observation posts and patrols out there?
I know that some have argued that FDR provoked the Japanese attack, while the Japanese ostensibly believed that the US would go to war if Japan attacked any British or Dutch colonies in Asia. The US oil embargo on Japan caused them to seek elsewhere for a source of oil, and the Dutch East Indies was in their sights. It's unclear whether the US actually would have declared war on Japan without a direct attack on the US, since Congress was still reluctant to declare war without a clear provocation. Nevertheless, the Japanese believed the US would declare war, which would put the Philippines in a strategic position to interdict and attack any ships going between Japan and the Dutch East Indies. They were also worried about British forces in Malaysia.
It's not as if FDR told Japan to attack us though. Public opinion against Japan was pretty severe even before Pearl Harbor, especially considering their atrocities in China. They were the ones acting aggressively. Likewise, FDR didn't tell Hitler or Mussolini to declare war on us; they did that of their own free will.
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