. . . a date which will live in infamy . . .

by Dick Mac

On December 7, 1941, the United States military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by Japan. Over 2,000 Americans were killed, ships were sunk, and planes were destroyed.

The attack on Pearl Harbor remains one of the most devastating attacks against the United States, and the decision to take action was swift and deliberate. It was clear that retaliation against Japan was necessary.

On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a speech:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

Roosevelt was responding to a military attack by a sovereign nation, and it was clear that Japan was the enemy.

Sixty years later, when a pack of criminals carried out attacks against the United States by flying jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the enemy wasn't as crystal clear.

President George W. Bush made no speech that is remembers this eight years later, and he took the opportunity to plan a military exercise designed to acquire the natural resources of a sovereign nation for a small number of businessmen (contractors and oil men), while ignoring the fact that the criminals were funded by our allies, and were citizens of countries with which American businessmen (especially oil men) do a remarkable amount of business, especially Saudi Arabia:

Mohamed Atta al Sayed - Egypt
Ziad Jarrah - Lebanon
Ahmed al-Haznawi - Saudi Arabia
Ahmed al-Nami - Saudi Arabia
Saeed al-Ghamdi - Saudi Arabia
Hani Hanjour - Saudi Arabia
Khalid al-Mihdhar - Saudi Arabia
Majed Moqed - Saudi Arabia
Nawaf al-Hazmi - Saudi Arabia
Salem al-Hazmi - Saudi Arabia
Mohand al-Shehri - Saudi Arabia
Hamza al-Ghamdi - Saudi Arabia
Ahmed al-Ghamdi - Saudi Arabia
Waleed al-Shehri - Saudi Arabia
Wail al-Shehri - Saudi Arabia
Abdulaziz al-Omari - Saudi Arabia
Satam al-Suqami - Saudi Arabia
Marwan al-Shehhi - United Arab Emirates
Fayez Banihammad - United Arab Emirates

We also learned pretty quickly that Osama bin Laden (Saudi Arabia) was the mastermind behind the crimes and that the wealth of his family and friends is used to finance his criminal activity.

Knowing what we know and looking at that list makes me wonder why we have not taken any action against Saudi Arabia.

September 11, 2001, was a date that lives in infamy; but, no successful action has ever been taken to punish the perpetrators, their co-conspirators, or financiers.

I think Roosevelt would have been all over Saudi Arabia. I think Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and even Carter would have been all over Saudi Arabia.

But since our government was turned-over to big business during the reign of Ronald Reagan, and has remained in their clutches with the blessings of Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama, our business relationship with the House of Saud is more important to our leaders than is our national security.

When will the United States government hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the role of Saudi citizens in the worst attack on American soil?

Never.

A Lucky Draw!

by Dick Mac

The Unites States Men's National Team has been drawn into Group C of the World Cup, to be played in South Africa next year.

Group C includes England, Algeria, and Slovenia; and although I have read some England fans say that the USA will not score a single point in the group stage, I am confident that we will certainly make it through to the knock-out round with either Slovenia or England moving along with us.

If I was a betting man, I would bet on USA and Slovenia going through, and England blaming David Beckham for their continued failure to make an impression at the World Cup.

Go USA!

Embarrassed To Be A Catholic (Again)

by Dick Mac

I read with dismay an article in the Times this morning, not because of the news it ultimately delivered about gay marriage in New York, but because of these paragraphs:

Roman Catholic bishops had consistently lobbied for its defeat, however, and after the vote released a statement applauding the move.

"Advocates for same-sex marriage have attempted to portray their cause as inevitable," Richard E. Barnes, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in the statement. "However, it has become clear that Americans continue to understand marriage the way it has always been understood, and New York is not different in that regard. This is a victory for the basic building block of our society."
New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill

It's offensive to me that my church would refer to the marriage of heterosexuals as a "basic building block of our society." If heterosexual marriage is a basic building block of our society, then heterosexuals destroyed that building block long, long ago; and that basic building block of society is pretty much non-existent, even among Catholics.

According to everything parishioners are told, the Church is in financial dire straits. Every level of the Church needs more money. We have to close schools, we have to sell property, we have to lay-off workers, all because we have no money. Then suddenly, there's plenty of money for the Church to lobby in Albany against the rights of taxpayers who may or may not be Catholic.

Which is it: are we broke or are we flush? And what are our priorities: children and education, or politics and conservatism? And how are we supposed to win back the participation of lapsed Catholics when this is the message we are sending?

It is a sad day for me as a New Yorker, and as a Catholic. I am embarrassed to be a Catholic today. I am mute and apologetic.

Stay, 1978

by Dick Mac

Live at The Beat Club. Enjoy!

Afghanistan On The Eve Of Destruction

by Dick Mac

What to do about Afghanistan?

Ideally, we would eliminate funding for terrorist organizations operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since most of that funding comes from Arab royal families and powerful Arabian businessmen, who are the closest and staunchest business partners of America's oil industry, it is unlikely that the American government will do anything about the funding of terrorism.

So, we have to do the next best thing: slaughter the Afghan people, and some Pakistanis, if we have to, and pretend we are eliminating the threat to our national security.

We will throw thousands of young Americans on the funeral pyre of a righteous war, funded by the Americans who can least afford it, and say that victory is at hand.

And although we may persevere, and we may actually win the war in Afghanistan, the threat to our national security will not be eliminated.

The threat to our national security is our vulgar dependence on Arabian oil, and being beholden to religious zealots who believe Americans are beneath contempt. That dependence will never be address, because the largest and most powerful businesses in the United States are complicit in that dependence. When it comes right down to it, you and I are also heavily invested in these businesses: our retirement funds are littered with oil stocks that allow our funds to swell while we sleep at night.

What do we do?

Well, there are two ideas: end the war in Afghanistan by pulling-out, or ending the war in Afghanistan by totally devastating what is left of that nation and hopefully killing enough of the young men in the area that there will be nobody left to accept Arabian funding for jihad.

The latter is, I guess, possible; but, it hasn't worked for Israel in Palestine.

The latter is what we will undertake, and the President will be discussing the plan later today.

Afghanistan is a mess. We went there to eliminate a terrorist organization; but, when they were in our sights then-President Bush and his coterie decided to let the old family friend vanish into the mountains. The terrorists were emboldened by their success and the current President has inherited an unnecessary mess that will mire the American taxpayer in red ink and red blood for another decade.

The sheikdoms that fund "islamic" terrorism have a lot more money than us; and they have all the oil. As long as those nations (with Saudi Arabia at the head) are allowed to fund terrorism, a victory in Afghanistan will be meaningless.

I say we send the 30,000 troops to Riyadh, and take down the Saudi Royal Family, then go after the other sheikdoms along the gulf. We may see a spike in oil prices for a while, but we stand a better chance of stopping terrorism that way than by continuing to destroy Afghanistan.