I had completely forgotten that it's Pearl Habor Day.  64 years ago today the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in an unprecedented attack on the native soil of the United States of America.

I'm not a World War II buff, but I certainly know how important this day was in US and world history - it was the day that America was inexorably pulled into WWII.  It was a day that sparked unparalleled patriotism and a day that began sacrifice on the part of Americans as men, goods and money went to the war effort.  It was a day that created the heroes of the near- and distant-future.  It truly was a day that will live in infamy.

Read on.

President George W. Bush spoke about Pearl Harbor today as well.  If, like me, you were unable to watch or listen to the speech, here's an excerpt:

Today we mark the anniversary of a fateful day in American history. On December the 7th, 1941, our peaceful nation awoke to an attack plotted in secret, and executed without mercy. The strike on Pearl Harbor was the start of a long war for America -- a massive struggle against those who attacked us, and those who shared their destructive ambitions. Fortunately for all of us, a great generation of Americans was more than equal to the challenge. Our nation pulled together -- and despite setbacks and battlefield defeats, we did not waver in freedom's cause. With courage and determination, we won a war on two fronts: we liberated millions, we aided the rise of democracy in Europe and Asia we watched enemies become allies, and we laid the foundation of peace for generations.

On September the 11th, 2001, our nation awoke to another sudden attack. In the space of just 102 minutes, more Americans were killed than we lost at Pearl Harbor. Like generations before us, we accepted new responsibilities, and we confronted new dangers with firm resolve. Like generations before us, we're taking the fight to those who attacked us -- and those who share their murderous vision for future attacks. Like generations before us, we've faced setbacks on the path to victory -- yet we will fight this war without wavering. And like the generations before us, we will prevail.

I can't tell you how angry it makes me to hear a man with no sense of service or responsibility invoke the spectre of heroes like my grandfather, a decorated WWII bomber pilot and bonafide hero.  I can't articulate how disgusted I am to think about my other grandfather, who rushed to serve his country in the Navy, and have the causes for which he fought compared to the shameful war in Iraq.  One grandfather is spinning in his grave in Arlington Cemetary; the other just switched off the television in abject disgust.

Yes, we were attacked on September 11th.  It was a vicious attack perpetrated on civilians.  It required retaliation on our part.  In some ways, the days following 9/11 felt like what my grandparents would describe as the national feeling immediately followig the bombing of Pearl Harbor - a feeling of horror and fear and life inevitably changed, but also a feeling of strength and unity.  United against our enemy, leaders rose up and crafted the vision and plan that would defeat our enemies and secure our freedom.  I wasn't alive during WWII - but to hear my parents and grandparents describe it, we knew who the enemy was and we understood absolutely what constituted "success".  We achieved that success definitively and without question.

Who must we defeat to achieve success in the War on Terror??  Is it Osama bin Laden?  I don't think so.  Symbolically, finding and killing bin Laden would do as much harm as good.  So when we say "War on Terror", what are we fighting?  Who and where are we fighting?  Afghanistan was a necessary step.  Denied of a base of operation, terrorist leaders at least experienced disruption in their activities in having to flee that country.

Yet it's been four years since we drove them into the fierce hills somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Four years is more than enough time to reconstitute the infrastructure necessary to conduct attacks against the United States, other western nations, and democratic interests across the world.  It's more than enough time to facilitate the planning of another catastrophic attack.

The "War on Terror", unlike WWII, has a vague and unaffiliated enemy.  In WWII, we truly "fought them over there" so we wouldn't have to fight them here... Not so with the War on Terror.  We fight, but only with a vague idea of what we hope to accomplish.  US and allied servicepeople die, clinging to the idea that they have participated in the liberation of an oppressed people - the people of Iraq - and they have.  And they should be proud.  But that's not the War on Terror.  

The War on Terror inexorably must have a US-based component - I would argue that, due to the nature of the enemy, it should be solely US-based.  Border security.  Transportation security.  Internal and external intelligence operations.  Cargo inspections.  Financial enforcement.  Information sharing.  Modern surveillance and communications equipment and techniques.  You get the idea.  All the things the 9/11 Commission says we are failing to accomplish four years after the day the President invokes as comparable to Pearl Harbor.

Four years after Pearl Harbor (roughly), the Americans and allied forces had defeated their enemy.  They had liberated a people designated to receive the most horrendous treatment and death imaginable at the hands of another human being.  Four years after Pearl Harbor, American soldiers were coming home to face the challenges of re-acclimating to civilian life.  They were picking up the pieces of their families, getting to know their children, buying homes, settling into new jobs...

What will our soldiers come home to, those who are able to come home at all at some undisclosed point in the future?  What jobs will they have?  What future will they face?  In coming back to the United States, will they truly be safer than they were when deployed in Iraq?  At least in Iraq it was commonplace to carry a gun and wear protective gear - the soldier back in the US that has failed to address the real issues and requirements of the War on Terror will be defenseless in a country that has failed to defend itself at home.  Their children will live their lives under threat.

It's said often, by way of joking, that what we did in going into Iraq to fight the "War on Terror" is tantamount to deciding to attack Sweden in response to Pearl Harbor.  I think sometimes ridiculous examples make the point with the greatest emphasis.  That is what it's like.  

And, when it happens again, American soldiers will be called back up to face the endless, relentless so-call-war-on-terror that this President seems intent on inflaming.

I can't think of a better reason to invest my spirit, fueled by the memory of the service of my grandfathers, in removing from power those who fail to properly honor my family's service to our great country.