Conquering Our World

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day leaves me with mixed feelings.

I understand the need to remember the sneak attack on the Naval Station in Paradise in 1941... How 2400 Americans were essentially murdered. How the whole course of history was changed after the US entered World War II. How 400,000 American lives were eventually lost to the most destructive war in World history.

It was Pearl Harbor that brought the attention of the American people to a boil. It galvanized us, and turned a reluctant population into an energized War Machine.

Today, December 7th, 2015 is the 74th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the Day that Lives in Infamy. And we need to remember it, and learn from it. But I am afraid this current generation may have failed the lesson...

Unfortunately, Pearl Harbor represents, for me,a sad analogy for our Modern World. Like Pearl Harbor, modern civilization has been attacked by an ideologically psychopathic clan of Islamic Fundamentalist Extremism.

Not just one big sneak attack, though the attack on the World Trade Center certainly was huge, but in a series of smaller, disparate, sometimes clumsy, but all too often deadly attacks. All of them vicious, uncivilized and indiscriminate, sneak attacks. Instead of a massive attack on one of our large military installations, ISIL chooses instead to piecemeal their attacks. To nibble away like a pack of coyotes feeding on the corpse of an elephant. They chew away at the 'soft' spots, each small, but deadly, attack, slowly consuming their victim.

Our response has not measured up.  What worries me is what is it going to take for Americans to come together with a unified mindset to go out and kick ass?

Let's not get so enamored with remembering the past that we forget to live in the present. As much as we should always remember and revere those who fought in World War II, and acknowledge the pain and suffering those who were directly affected by the vicious sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, we must not forget we still have a planet to protect, right here, right now. And the threat of the destruction of modern civilization by the Islamic Mad Dogs of ISIS is no less real than the delusional Japanese Imperialists or the Aryan Supremacist Nazis.

ISIS may not have the industrial production that the Nazis had, or the near hypnotic control over the society as had the Imperialist Dynasty of Japan, but what they do have is the internet and potentially, weapons of mass destruction.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor did not have the effect the Japanese had anticipated. They thought the US would be so devastated that they would not respond, and instead would focus their attention on Germany, who only days after the Japanese attack also declared war on America. Isn't that exactly what Osama Bin Laden said about us? That we were the weak horse and his movement was the strong horse? That America doesn't have the will to fight?

The Islamic State has made it clear they intend  to conquer our world. America, the leader of the Free World, appears to be asleep at the wheel. All indications are the momentum is on the side of the marauding packs of Mad Dogs we assign the euphemistic terms  'sleeper cells' or 'insurgents' or 'disillusioned extremists.'

If I were a leader of the terrorist movement, I would be feeling pretty good about my successes.The Islamic extremists may not have control over the planet, but they certainly aren't being controlled. While many of the most important and significant tenants of the US Constitution, freedom of speech, right to be armed, freedom to practice religion, freedom of association and equal protection under the law, have all been eroded, or at least restricted.

We have imposed so many layers of restraints on our ability to identify, to monitor, to control or interrogate suspected terrorists, that we are essentially fighting with both arms tied behind our backs!

What is so hard about agreeing to coalesce our efforts to fight this war and to win it. Not to just 'contain' it as our President proudly suggests, but to destroy all vestiges of it. Put it down like a Mad Dog, and bury it in the dustbin of history?

The sneak attack on the quiet and beautiful Hawaiian Naval station was different only in that the Japanese military did not announce its intentions. The clans of Fundamental Jihad have made it clear what their goals are, and how they intend to achieve them.

Contrast that with the muddled and confused messages being sent by the Obama administration. The seemingly distant reaction from many parts of America, especially from the college student movement that can't understand why society isn't paying more attention to their childish and selfish demands for 'safety', 'security,' 'tolerance'  and the end of 'white privilege.'

Is this unfocused attempt to deal with what could easily morph into the biggest threat to civilization since WWII the result of the world's afluency? Is it because we have simply become complacent and morally dull? Because it appears that the only reason this Caliphate movement has made the progress that it has is due to America's total lack of acknowledgement that it presents a real threat.

On December 7th, 1941, everything America stood for was under attack.

On December 7th, 2015, everything America stands for is under attack.