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Republished from Strategic Culture Foundation
[This paper works as a follow-up to a previous article titled, "On Roosevelt and Stalin: What Revisionist Historians Want Us to Forget." The author can be reached at Rising Tide Foundation, email cynthiachung@tutanota.com]
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
- Shakespeare's Hamlet Act III, scene I
Upon discovery of such an extraordinary weapon, like a terrible sword Excalibur, it was thought by some that they could use it to rule forever.
Others recognised that such power was fleeting, and would always be fleeting, that it had opened up Pandora's Box and unleashed itself onto the world, with no limit to the magnitude of destruction it could incur, and no limit to how many hands it could fall into.
Today, we find ourselves in a self-made purgatory; we have condemned ourselves and the generations that will follow to an endless stand-off with no release, while the entire world holds its breath taken in as its hostage.
Is this what we call security? Is this what we call peace?
It is a nightmarish twisting of those words. It is, in fact, the most brutal form of tyranny that, like a madman, wildly threatens whole civilizations. It uses terror to get its way and is ready to turn those who rise up against it into ash. It has no regard for reason or understanding, it is drunk on its own colossal power and cares not what came before it and what will come after, its obsession is a fading now.
There is no escape from this type of hell through savage force, this should be clear by now, there can only be an end to this when we turn away from the very thing that brought us here in the first place, blind fear.
Let us stop this madness, and in this enterprise of great pith and moment, let us not allow our currents to turn awry"let us not lose the name of action.
"We've Just Saved Two Million Americans"
Despite the attack on Pearl Harbor occurring Dec 7, 1941, giving the U.S. impetus to enter the war more directly, the Americans would only begin their military air campaign against Japan in mid-1944. This is, of course, a massive lag in response.
It was understood by the U.S. that they would need the support of Russia to launch an attack on Japan. Although Germany and Japan had been in partnership and communication throughout the war, the Allied countries did not all regard the war with Japan "their problem."
General MacArthur estimated that a million Americans would die in only the first phase of the Pacific War. The Russians were being heavily courted by the Americans to break their Neutrality Pact with Japan and enter into the Pacific War for the very straightforward reason that less Americans would die.
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