Ignoring Threats Invites Aggression and Raises the Death Toll - Granite Grok

Ignoring Threats Invites Aggression and Raises the Death Toll

Without warning, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor seventy-one years ago.  Because of this sneak attack, President Roosevelt said that December 7, 1941 would be remembered as a “day of infamy”.     

December 7th revealed our naivety and our lack of preparedness that unnecessarily caused many tens of thousands of American war deaths.  Despite years of war in Europe and Asia, our country’s leaders refused to accept the fact that war was imminent and failed to counter the modern weapons, tactics, and skills that would be used to kill Americans. 

Failing to face reality, the United States entered WWII surprised and unprepared, just like we entered WWI, Korea, and the war on terror.  People died unnecessarily because we extended “peace dividends” too long.           

We are a peaceful people and we want to avoid war, but we fail repeatedly to recognize that being unprepared for war and failing to respond to aggression encourages, rather than detours, aggressors.  Our failure to react to reality allows our enemies to grow stronger and bolder which increases the eventual cost of defeating aggressors.        

Ronald Reagan said that of the four wars in his lifetime, none were caused because the US was too strong.  Of all the major 20th Century threats to the US, the only major shooting war that we avoided, the one that, for decades, pundits told us we were instigating by aggressively preparing for it, is the war with the Soviet Union.     

The 9/11 attack shows that enemies can and want to kill civilians, not just soldiers, on our own soil.    The 9/11 attack should not have been a surprise, but Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II didn’t want to recognize repeated Muslim terrorist attacks since the 1970s for what they were because that would require appropriate responses.         

Despite fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other actions, President Bush refused to close our borders or do anything to stop development of nuclear weapons and rocket technology by hostile countries, e.g., Iran and North Korea.  

President Obama continues ignoring these threats and has exacerbated our vulnerabilities by allowing people with known terrorist ties into our country, into the White House, and to influence changing our policies to deny the threats from radical Islam and minimize our preparation to deter or respond to it. 

The Obama administration encourages radical Muslims by its support for the Muslim Brotherhood with its 100 years of terrorist history, by providing terrorist groups with weapons in Syria as it did in Libya, and by doing nothing to slow or stop development of nuclear weapons or delivery systems by hostile countries like Iran which is a major sponsor of Muslim terrorists.   

President Obama, like his predecessors, wants a “peace dividend”.  He plans substantial defense cuts.  Half of all the cuts caused by his sequestration deal come from defense although defense costs only 18% of our budget.  But, you can only afford a “peace dividend” when the war is over, or when you are fully prepared to detour or respond to likely aggression.  Unfortunately our military is not adequately prepared.  After 10 years of war, our military needs to replace equipment and supplies, refocus our intelligence teams, and restore our worn out personnel.    

Our enemies are developing the capability to launch an EMP attack, perhaps from a ship, that would destroy our electronic infrastructure (think no electricity, no transportation, no phones, nothing that depends on electronics) resulting in the death of perhaps 50 to 100 million Americans within a couple months.     

The threats to our civilian population are greater today than ever before.  Terrorist groups are growing stronger, bolder, and they continue to kill Americans.  The prize that radical Muslims pray for is to destroy the “Great Satan”, the United States and our people.  Yet, President Obama is determined to cut the defense spending needed to detour or counter aggression.        

The next terrorist mass killing of Americans will be condemned, perhaps even called something like “a day of infamy.”  But each day that we ignore the clear and present danger from radical Muslims, is another “day of infamy” because each day increases the likely death toll from another attack. 

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