Remember Pearl Harbor

"... December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy ..."

-- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

The post-World War II controversy that erupted over what Washington knew or should have known prior to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor likely will never go away. The distinguished writer, historian and retired Navy Capt. Edward L. Beach went to his grave convinced that administration figures close to President Roosevelt deliberately withheld knowledge of the impending attack from Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the Navy and Army commanders at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack.

Two thousand, three hundred and forty-five U.S. servicemen were killed, and another 1,247 wounded. Civilian lives lost numbered 57, with 35 others wounded. Four battleships were sunk and four were heavily damaged. Three hundred and forty-three military aircraft were destroyed or damaged, all but a few of them on the ground.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor emboldened Hitler, just two days later, to declare war on the United States. Our country was thus thrust into the greatest armed conflict in history, World War II.

An equally horrifying and unprovoked attack on the United States occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft, crashed two into New York's twin towers, and one into the Pentagon. (The fourth went down in a field in Pennsylvania, as heroic passengers fought back against the hijackers.) Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six people, the overwhelming majority of whom were American civilians, perished on that awful day.

Controversy likely will rage for many years concerning who was responsible for the failure to avert this attack. There will be much here to engage future historians, but more to those who examine what came after, rather than before, Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

The Roosevelt administration succeeded in uniting the American people behind the successful prosecution of World War II. Everyone pitched in. Everyone had a stake. Everyone sacrificed. Everyone who was able served.

The George W. Bush administration failed to unite the country behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It called upon the American people to do business as usual. No one had to sacrifice, except for those who served in the All-Volunteer Force and their families.

The Obama administration thus far has done little to change this mindset, and the wars it inherited have taken a backseat to its domestic agenda to change America.

These "little" wars have now gone on for more than twice as long as it took to win World War II, and it's said we could be engaged in them for perhaps twice as long as we already have, President Obama's timetable notwithstanding.

But today we pause to remember America's first victims of "The Big One" -- and to honor their sacrifice.