A little history lesson

This is December 7.
Sixty-four years ago today, the United States was hit by a terrorist attack. An act of war.
The Americans of that era responded -- immediately.
It took a long time, at a horrific cost, but eventually the U.S. and its allies won.
Think about this for a minute, if you would... I grew up in a small town, one that never had more than 2,000 people. There is a monument that still exists in front of town hall, bearing the names of 19 young men who gave their lives in that war. Nineteen in a town of less than 2,000 is mind-boggling, but no doubt it is repeated in similar proportions throughout the U.S. (and Canada, too, for that matter).
Fast forward to today.
We are engaged now, as we became engaged then, in a war. This one is with an enemy far different from the enemy back then, yet it is similar in its evil. It is a far different kind of war than was waged back then; in fact, it's not really like any war this hungry planet has ever seen. It is a war not with a nation or nations, but with an ideology that stops at nothing to achieve its ends. The rules of engagement of the past do not necessarily apply in this conflict. (Even if they did, it's doubtful that this enemy would acknowledge them.)
Yet, many of our leaders here in the U.S. of A. would choose not to pursue victory, but retreat in the face of an enemy who has already told us that retreat is tantamount to surrender. Past retreats have only emboldened them, not pacified them, as these leaders would want us to believe.
They don't sing Kumbaya, Charlie Brown. Their songs are the songs of the glories of the 72 virgins they claim they will receive should they sacrifice their lives for their demented cause. In a way, that is not unlike the kamikaze pilots who, too, believed they were in store for a special reward in the afterlife at the completion of their mission.
It makes you ask: If these same leaders who want us to walk away from the current fight had been in charge on December 7, 1941, would we be singing Deutschland uber Alles or the Japanese national anthem today?
Sadly, I can only conclude that we probably would.
Hundreds of thousands of young men paid the ultimate price so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have today.
If those who endorse walking away from this fight ever take power, those sacrifices may very well have been in vain.
And the day that will live in infamy... the words of a Democrat president, by the way... will be little more than a blip on the radar screen of history in our descent into Hell.
Dammit, we can't let that happen.
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E.M. and JimmyB have good stuff on Pearl Harbor, too.