what a difference 70 years makes

This really is a momentous day.  Many, many Americans make the mistake that WWII started 70 years ago today, December 7, 1941.  The fact is that if you talk to historians, they will give you varying dates on when it started- and, even though I'm not a bonafide "historian", I have my own date that I consider as the start- October 3, 1935, when Italy invaded Ethiopia.  But, why even bring this up?

There's more parallels between this country's current state of war and back then than a lot of people realize.  Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931; the Germans (for all intents and purposes) had so much participation in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 that they might as well have been listed as an actual combatant; and Mussolini had decided that a little border incident in Somaliland in 1935 warranted a full-fledged invasion.  Germany annexes Austria and the Sudatenland in 1938 and invades Poland in 1939; Russia, France, Yugoslavia and a bunch of other countries in 1940 and attacks Britain in the summer of 1940.  Germany sinks American ships all during 1940 and early 1941.

So, what were we doing during this?  Not a whole lot.  This country was being "isolationist".  In fact, FDR, prior to 12/7/41, really didn't want to head us into a war.  We had lots of problems here- a really bad economy; rampant unemployment; a double-dip recession after the Great Depression- the very last thing we needed was to get involved in any fight that was thousands of miles away and had no real bearing or security problem for the US.  No one thought for a second that the Japanese would invade the US, and Germany was too far, and the Italians didn't have any of the infrastructure needed to supply anything like that, so we sat by and offered aid to the Brits and hoped it would all go away.  When the situation in China got to the point that the world was watching, we started an embargo against the Japanese- and that was the entire reason for the Japanese to attack us in the first place.  (The Japanese intent on the attack on Hawaii was not to get us into the war- in fact, it was the opposite.  The Japanese figured it was just a matter of time before the US would have to act, and in order to keep their expansionist movement in place, they would cripple our ability to fight and withdraw the embargo.)

All that changed when the Japanese came calling on that Sunday morning in Hawaii, however- but, even then, the American people knew that there was no way that Japan could sustain any kind of real, meaningful action on US soil.  But, that didn't matter.

Just like then, if you were to press the average American on an answer to "what do you think the real goal of terrorism is", no one in their right mind is going to say that they fear an invasion.  And, like the US of the late 30's, we sat largely idle while our allies like Israel and others took attack after attack, invasion after invasion, and didn't really act.  Not really.  And, all that changed on 9/11/2001.

But, that's where the common ground ends.  In 1941, the entire country galvanized around the loss of 2,500 service men and women and said that was enough.  I believe that there were certain elements of the US Citizenry that was probably against declaring war, but the undeniable vast majority of this country was steeled for it.  And, remember- the US was losing the war until The Battle of the Coral Sea in May of 1942 (some say The Battle of Midway in June of '42) but even then- when our losses were in the hundreds of thousands- the Americans remained steadfast in their resolve.

Let's face it- when you hear people call that generation of Americans "the Greatest Generation", that is a 100% accurate term.  No matter what date WWII "started", we were faced with an enemy that had superior numbers, superior equipment and troops that had been in battle non-stop for almost 10 years.  They had experience and drive, and for a time, the upper hand.  Check your history books for accounts of battles like Guadalcanal, The Solomons, North Africa and the invasion of Italy in 1943- we were getting our butts handed to us at every single turn.

But, we prevailed.

Ok- so what, you say.  We kicked ass.  Yes, we did- but the Greatest Generation didn't stop there.  We sent folks to the enemies we vanquished and rebuilt their countries.  We started companies and families and jobs, jumpstarted our own economy in the process, that generation continued to go forward and innovate and clean up the mess that the rest of the world had caused.  And, they didn't complain one bit.  The US had sustained 300,000 dead and 800,000 wounded over the course of WWII- and that was less than 4 years of fighting.

In the days since 9/11, we have sustained far less casualties than that- and I am in no way suggesting that those casualties are less in the cost.  Any life lost is a tremendous loss.

So, what's my point?  My point is that back then, in the days where we didn't have up-to-the-nanosecond news and embedded media and a country that was as backwards as it could be- when the chips were down, this country rose up from the inside, took a deep breath and practiced a big bunch of TCB while building huge containers of whup-ass and delivered them with pin-point accuracy and resolve right where it was needed- and we did it in less than 4 years.  Now, we're 10 years in and the fight seems to have gone out of us wholesale.  We struggle with things like political partisonship over the dumbest things, and can't seem to get our collective heads together enough or come together long enough to get anything done.  It really pisses me off when I think what The Greatest Generation did for all of us alive today, and how much we have squandered that gift- a gift very much paid for in blood and sinew- and how we soil that gift every single day.

Today, there's not many men and women left of that generation.  I would like to extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to them- especially the 2,500 men and women of Pearl Harbor- who took the fight to the enemy and emerged victorious.  And then, I'd like to extend that same deep sense of gratitude to the men and women who are sacrificing right freaking now- doing a job I'm am very glad I don't have to do.  And, after that, I extend the challenge to everyone who is here at home (like me) who has never had to participate in something as horrible as armed conflict, to take a deep breath and try very, very hard to be the next Greatest Generation and never, EVER forget the price that has been paid for us.