Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorB
Kind of like Pearl Harbor. FDR wanted to get into the war but promised not too and the anti-war movement was huge. Letting Pearl Harbor happen allowed FDR get the US into WWII without breaking his promise and wiped out the anti-war movement overnight.
|
I don't believe FDR "let Pearl Harbor" happen.
The US Government knew that an attack can happen at "any time" at that point, and the US was already on a war footing. Sixty years later we look back and say "well, it was obvious that it would be at Pearl Harbor" because we all know what Pearl Harbor is. In 1941 no one knew where Hawaii was - It wasn't a US state, and was just one of a number of US territories that no one had heard of. (Hawaii became a US state in 1959.)
At that exact moment in 1941 the US had forces on The Phillipines, Wake Island, Cook Island, Jarvis Islands, and others. We knew that they "might attack", but if they did we had no idea where or when.
Likewise, we knew that these extremeists had plans to attack the US. Unless the US was able to lock down every airport, shopping center, embasy, port, and transportation hub because "we believe they might attack".... See my point? We know they "might be coming" but we have no idea where or where - or how.
And we still aren't prepared. We know they are coming, but we don't know where or when. They can hijack a truck filled with gas and ram into a crowded shopping center or tourist area and everyone will say "well, why didn't we prepare for this?"