Guadalcanal Revisited
By We need to revisit part of LTC Smith’s Weekly Standard article:
Historical apologists say that the Japanese were “forced” to attack us because we were strangling their trade in Asia. Sound familiar? American foreign policy in the Middle East is responsible for the anger and rage that has stirred up al Qaeda, right?
Well, I’m not sure what a “historical apologist” is, although it could be someone who apologizes for history; perhaps some remorseful high school social studies teacher? More likely, he’s suggesting that some historical REVISIONIST has argued that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was precipitated by the oil embargo that the United States placed on Japan. This revisionist account might further argue that, had the United States continued to supply Japan with oil and steel, Japan would never have attacked the United States at all.
If so, it would seem that every major historian who has given an account of the Pacific War would fall into this group. Of course the oil embargo precipitated the Japanese attack; had the US been willing to sponsor Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia, no war would have been necessary. Moreover, the Roosevelt administration knew that this was the case when they instituted the embargo. The Pearl Harbor attack was a tactical surprise, not a strategic one, as the US had expected war for some time.
What LTC Smith is clumsily trying to do is remove any US responsibility for the bad things that happen to us. This endeavour is dear to hearts on the right, but is intellectually indefensible. The Roosevelt administration knew that the oil embargo would inspire a Japanese reaction, and chose to move forward anyway. They made the correct decision; it was worth fighting a war to prevent Japanese domination of China and Southeast Asia. Similarly, any US presence in the Middle East may result in some backlash, which does not invalidate whatever reasons we have for being present. Foreign policy, like chess, is strategic, and involves two or more players reacting to each others moves.
Many on the right would prefer that we not think this through, and are satisfied to depict Americans as hapless, inoffensive, yet noble victims of foreign aggression. Needless to say, this gets us nowhere. It’s time for those who think that “the grownups are back in charge” to grow the fuck up.
UPDATE: You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw that Bird Dog has linked to the Smith article at Tacitus this morning.