| I think the analogy of WWII still holds sway. That was the last time our nation was directly faced with the possibility of conquest by a foreign power. It was very real and very possible. Nobody and I mean nobody was under any illusions to the contrary. When America entered the war we had no idea how powerful our existing aircraft carriers were and would become. With the battleships lying in the muddy bottom of Pearl Harbor we had every reason to believe that Japan would invade the West Coast. Our defenses were virtually non-existent. And to our opposite shore we had already seen Hitler's swift conquest of the European continent and the German army was still making vast strides into Russia at the time. Our throats were exposed and we knew it.
In thinking on this further I've come to another obvious conclusion. WWII was not only the last time our survival as a civilization was at stake, it was the only time since the Civil War that that was so for us. Beyond the memory of living men then and WWII is quickly approaching the same watermark for us now. Will we forget it all? I hope not. I hope that 9/11 will remain the wakeup call it was and will reverberate as Pearl Harbor did and still does. We are not safe - not this time by a nation that seeks to conquer us, but by an idea that our civilization must fall. The threat is an infinitely smaller force than we faced in WWII, but the damage that can be done is very real and we know that now if we had any doubts about it. Another obstacle faces us too. Nations and regimes can be cast down but ideas are very hard indeed to kill.
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"Do not forget your dogs of war, your big guns, which are the most-to-be respected arguments of the rights of kings."
- Frederick the Great, King of Prussia  |