How do you think 9/11 is any different than Pearl Harbor's attack in 1941? They were both sneak attacks on us.

Question

Why was no one upset in 1941 when the Japenese sneak attacked us at Pearl Harbor killing many people and we went to war to stop them but have their pants in a knot when the muslims did the same thing and we went to war to stop them?

I know people were upset in 1941. I'm saying 9/11 and the Pearl Harbor attack were the same kind of attack yet people are stupidly saying 9/11 was an inside government job. Please, this is what I think is stupid.

I've given several thumbs up for several answers. It's going to be hard to chose a best answer.

You know people if you read my question I NEVER said anything about Iraq. I said 9/11 and I said attack not war. Read the question and don't read anything else into it.

So, anyone have a better idea? The floor is yours.

Ok, roadwarrior, I see your point but I still never said anything about us invading Iraq!
I want to know why people are treating the 9/11 attack, and I am not saying who they were, like we shouldn't have stood up for country when we did it in 1941 at Pearl Harbor. I'm still not getting through that I'm NOT talking about the wars. I'll rephrase my question. Was the 9/11 attack a reality check for us that the USA is in danger of being destroyed. How's that?

I'm not talking about the war. I'm talking about the attack of 9/11, what does it mean to you? I don't want to talk about the war.

Answer 1

The largest difference is that Pearl Harbor was a military base with TONS of military assets within striking distance of Japan.

The 911 attack was on civilians; sure the Pentagon is military and a military asset. The attack was meant to disrupt us as a country and the casualties were primarily civilians.

The largest deterant to war after WWII was the fact that The World KNEW that we had the capability to wipe them off the face of the earth and were NOT afraid to use that capability if we were pushed far enough.

I believe that the difference in attitudes is based upon the speed of information and possibly manipulation by the press. Perhaps too much information is available?

The current war is NOT against Muslims, but terrorists attempting to further de-stabilize the Middle East for their own cowardly benefit.

There was a great deal of personal sacrafice during WWII and it was done in support of the war.

I think that many people with objections to the current war do not know how to sacrafice for anything. This group has been branded, "The Entitled Generation" and thay are SCARED to DEATH that the draft might be reenstated. When something messes with their "nice life" they get upset.

A friend of mine is VERY INFORMED and perhaps too much of a "HAWK" for me, but he does have some good points.

He suggests: After 911 Afganistan should have been told, "You have 48 hours to hand him over and evacuate the civilians from ____. If you do not comply we will vaporize ____ at 50 hours and turn that city into 100 square miles of coke glass". I won't bore you with more, but you get my point.

personally think that the US is like a nice bear; eat some berries, eat a big fish and take a long nap in the winter. If you come into my cave in the middle of winter and slaughter my family while you poke me with a sharp stick then I am going to GET NASTY!

Diplomacy is NECESSARY to a certain extent but I think that we may have gone too far.

There were no meetings with the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, no negotiations and why they thought one base would bring the US to it's knees is just beyond my comprehension. We were also dealing with a fanatic mentality and tried to deal with it conventionally at a GREAT LOSS of US TROOPS. We finally got their attention with Hiroshma and Nagasaki. The technology at the time was like throwing a firecracker and hoping that it exploded where it was supposed to. Many civilian's died and were maimed because of it, but many lives were also saved. The US re-built Japan and now they are our business partner. NOT in war though; do you suppose that they just don't want to take a chance of "poking the BEAR" in any way?

Have you ever been in an UGLY bar fight? You have a bunch of drunk people strutting their stuff and they have to prove something. Talking makes NO sense, so you find the biggest and meanest guy and completely KHA until he is begging you to stop. A friend of mine was in one and BEAT the HELL out of the instigator; the guy was down for the count and my friend broke a beer bottle and cut the guys cheek. He said, "You fought well, lost like a man and I am going to have to MARK you so every morning when you look in the mirror you will remember NEVER to F*** with ME again". We then picked the guy up and took him to a doctor. A week later we went back to the bar and it went SILENT when we walked in; we bought a round and all got drunk together. There was NO fight this time. I suppose that we could have been shot or something but the whole thing was done with honor.

I just figure that WWII eliminated much of the talk and dancing around the bush because it just took too much time; decisions were made without a UN focus group that wanted to talk an offending country into submission.

Unfortunately, it is the RESPONSIBILITY of the US to attempt to maintain world PEACE!

It seems simple to me. Live your culture if it does NOT include the murder of citizens because they ask questions that are hard to answer, send children to war to support the lifestyle of a two class society, murder because they are "DIFFERENT" and abuse simple human rights because it is the RELIGION or some guy in a HUGE Palace wants it that way.

We got POKED in 1941 and the rest is history with Japan.

Spring is around the corner and "THE BEAR" is going to come out of hybernation PISSED!

Good question!
J

Answer 2

Well for one, the people who think it was an inside job are conspiracy nuts who don't know what they are talking about. That's why that whole "conspiracy theory" thing has died down. Everyone realized it was BS.

In 1941 people were a lot more patriotic it seems. Not that people aren't today, but there's a lot of young people who "hate" Bush and "hate" the government just because they think the local cops pick on them. Or for no reason at all. They just go with the flow.

Also, a lot of people don't feel Iraq has anything to do with 9/11. Bush gave everyone a clear message, anyone who harbors or supports terrorist will get whats coming to them. That's what Saddam got. This war also has more to do with the future of our country more than most people realize. If we lose Iran will have complete control over the Middle East and we will be starting World War III.

They also don't realize that Afghanistan is a completely different thing. People demand for the Iraq war to be ended, then you ask them about the war in Afghanistan and they look confused...."Well yea send them home too".

Now the real question is, why do we care if 70% of these people don't agree with the war?

Answer 3

I am retired military so I sometimes see things a bit differently than those who never wore the uniform.

The primary difference I can see is the attack by Japan targeted, mostly, military personnel and equipment. New York was, of course, mainly civilians. Add those facts to the fact that Hawaii was not a state but a possession and I see New York as a more serious assault than Hawaii.

In my opinion I have a much better question than that. You and I both know what happened on Dec 7, 1941 but I want to know about something that happened on the 8Th of Dec.

If Japan attacked us on the 7Th why did the President of the United States go before Congress on the 8Th and ask for a Declaration of War against Germany (as well as Japan)? Germany was out of control, they were on a march toward world domination but they had not struck a blow against the US. And a follow-up question could be, "why did Congress give the President the Declaration he sought?".

The only significant difference I can see is that in 1941 the President was a Democrat and in 2001 the President was a Republican.

BTW, did you know more people died in New York than in Hawaii?

I warned you, I sometimes see things differently.

Answer 4

Well for starters, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Empire and not by a mob of angry Muslim Middle Easterners. I'm going to put the rest of the reasons down below in a list format. 2. Japan declared war on the USA starting with the major Attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US did the same. Currently, the US is not at war with the Muslims in the Middle East. 3. The US had prior knowledge/ or at least suspicions of an attack on Pearl Harbor. The attacks on the embassies were not foreseen. (Please, note that this is debatable, and I'm not willing to debate right now) 4. The attack on Pearl Harbor was due to a number of reason. The attack on the embassies are the result of a film disrespecting Islam and past anti-Muslim/Middle Eastern grievances caused either by NATO or the US. 5. The whole Japanese Empire was against the US when they attacked Pearl Harbor. The Muslim attacks on the embassies were made by radicals/extremists/former/current al-Qaeda members/protesters or people who take religious offenses in a violent manner. 6. The attack on the embassies was made by land, not by sea. 7. The attacks on the embassies were made by a mob of civilians, not trained military soldiers. 8. The attacks on the embassies were across several countries, not on a pre-US state. 9. The attacks on the embassies were achieved using lower forms of technology, not using battleships, planes, tanks...etc. 10. The attacks on the embassies are ongoing, the Attack of Pearl Harbor happened about 71 years ago.

Answer 5

Well, I'll give you my honest opinion. It was very clear from the start that 9/11 was perpetrated by Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. It was also very clear that these terrorists had their base in Afghanistan. Ok we sent American troops to Afghanistan to hunt the terrorists. I'm ok with that.

But what I'm really upset about is, why are we in Iraq?. Why did we invade Iraq?. Sure, Saddam is a brutal dictator. But that's no reason for us to invade Iraq. It's the Iraqi's own business to deal with him. There are other equally brutal dictators around the world, yet the U.S. didn't bat an eyelid on them. The U.S. even supported many of them, no matter how evil they are, as long as these dictators take their cue from Washington. Now the WMD's. The Pentagon and the CIA admitted that Iraq had none of them. In short, Iraq don't have anything that qualifies them as a threat to the U.S.. But why did we still invaded them?. I'm still asking this question again and again up to this time, and never found any credible answer. Now, we are in the middle of a quagmire, wasting billions of dollars and thousands of American lives for a reason that none of us knows. Freedom and democracy for the Iraqis'?. The Iraqis were living in a much far better conditions under Saddam. They're free to enjoy their lives, do anything as they wish, as long as they don't do anything that would bring Saddam's wrath on them. How about now?. They're living in constant fear. They're thankful if they manage to stay alive at the end of the day. Tomorrow they have to think again how to survive. Children don't feel safe to go to school, or even go outside to play in the street. People can't even go shopping or go to the market, unsure whether they can even make it home alive. If this is the kind of "freedom and democracy" that the Americans are giving to them, I bet that they wouldn't want any of it.

Bush's grand idea of showing "Iraq as the beacon of freedom and democracy" for the rest of the Middle East theocracies to emulate is already an utter failure. This disillusion is now the laughingstock of the whole world.

Answer 6

There is a difference between the war in Iraq and the overall "war on terror". Contrary to what right wing talking heads will have you believe, the critics of the war in Iraq don't object to defending this country from the Islamic fundamentalists. It's precisely because we want to see this country defended that we are upset with the waste of lives, time and resources as a result of the Iraq war.

Answer 7

The difference in 9/11 and Pearl harbor is the enormous difference of casualties. 9/11 by far was worse. And people actually had the nerve to protest against us invading Afghanistan after that. How can these people have sympathy for these terrorists? These are probably the people that got beat up over and over again in school and never fought back.

Answer 8

well see pearl harbor and the japanese (and therefore germans) were justified. they attacked us, we retaliated. no problem. however, 9/11 was not iraq it was al queda and you may argue that iraq funded them but no one has found any evidence of that...iraq had nothing to do with 9/11...they are scapegoats...we have no reason to be there, had no right to overthrow their government, and owe them a very large apology. meanwhile the people truly responsible are still at large, no longer being looked for, and are again gaining in strength. meanwhile hatred and resentment of the US has increased and therefore the risk of terrorism too....we've made the situation worse and never addressed the problem...

Answer 9

Its alot eaiser to go to war with a nation than to go to war with a religion. I think people are upset because everyone is sterotyping all muslims as the group that attacked the twin towers. Even though it is not everyone doing this it is still a fast majority of americans. You are right it will be hard for you to choose a best answer, lots of good ones.

Answer 10

Today's society is weak, selfish, and complacent. The generation of the 40's understood long-term consequences and their role in becoming personally involved. Today, people have lost their sense of history, of national identity, of personal responsibility, and have no resolve. They care more about their immediate material comforts than they do about the future. And they like to whine.

The secondary reason is that with the Japanese, there was an organized uniformed national military to focus our retaliation against. Today, the enemy wears no uniform and is a group of people comprised of many different nationalities who cross borders to engage our forces. We can't hold each of those governments responsible for the actions of their rogue barbarians.