Diamonds Are Forever

Seventy five years after The Day Of Infamy, there still isn't a better tribute to all the war-dead {IMHO}, than the Arizona Memorial, pictured above.

She still dribbles fuel oil on occasion - fuel oil that was one of the chief motivating factors of Japan's aggression towards us in the first place.  Our Pacific Fleet stood right in the way of Japan's territorial conquests, which were designed to acquire raw materials - like crude oil - for themselves, ending their dependence on others for the goods of war & Empire.  And had the whole fleet been in port at Pearl that fateful Sunday, the Japanese just might have succeeded in "chopping off the Eagle's beak."

As it was though, Hirohito's treachery merely "awakened the sleeping giant" - the war that ensued was lost practically at the outset, thanks to our Resolve, and industrial might.  That, and the ludicrous over-ambitions of our enemies sealed their fates, just as surely as Japanese torpedoes and bombs sealed the fates of the 1177 innocent, unsuspecting souls aboard the Arizona that horrible Sabbath seventy-five years ago.  Had we not been forced to fight a two-front war, it's interesting to speculate how quickly VJ-day might have come, if it were our sole objective.  Would the A-bomb have even been necessary, with the full strength of our military focused solely on the unconditional destruction of Tokyo?

We'll never know for sure, of course.  But looking at the hallowed remains of the Arizona today, one can still clearly hear the echoes of the awful bloodbath that was WWII, in our current political climate.  My generation sadly has a near-equivalent to Pearl with 9/11 - but our resolve has quite frankly "gone out to lunch" as of late, and don't even get me started about our current capacity to wage all-out war the way we did when my Dad and Mom were teenagers..........

May the Powers That Be see with wide-open eyes the lessons to learn from that terrible Sunday seventy-five years past, and may they learn them well - that would truly honor those who went down  with this brave, tragic dreadnought, may she and her crew Rest In Peace........................