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David Swanson, author of "War is a Lie", writes via CounterPunch:
The facts [of the Pearl Harbor story] do not support the mythology. The United States government did not need to make Japan a junior partner in imperialism, did not need to fuel an arms race, did not need to support Nazism and fascism (as some of the biggest U.S. corporations did right through the war), did not need to provoke Japan, did not need to join the war in Asia or Europe, and was not surprised by the attack on Pearl Harbor. For support of each of these statements, keep reading.
[...] Churchill's fervent hope for years before the U.S. entry into the war was that Japan would attack the United States. This would permit the United States (not legally, but politically) to fully enter World War II in Europe, as its president wanted to do, as opposed to merely providing weaponry and assisting in the targeting of submarines as it had been doing. On December 7, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt drew up a declaration of war on both Japan and Germany, but decided it wouldn't work and went with Japan alone. Germany quickly declared war on the United States, possibly in hopes that Japan would declare war on the Soviet Union.
Getting into the war was not a new idea in the Roosevelt White House. FDR had tried lying to the U.S. public about U.S. ships including the Greer and the Kerny, which had been helping British planes track German submarines, but which Roosevelt pretended had been innocently attacked. Roosevelt also lied that he had in his possession a secret Nazi map planning the conquest of South America, as well as a secret Nazi plan for replacing all religions with Nazism. The map was of the quality of Karl Rove's "proof" that Iraq was buying uranium in Niger.
And yet, the people of the United States didn't buy the idea of going into another war until Pearl Harbor, by which point Roosevelt had already instituted the draft, activated the National Guard, created a huge Navy in two oceans, traded old destroyers to England in exchange for the lease of its bases in the Caribbean and Bermuda, and--just 11 days before the "unexpected" attack, and five days before FDR expected it--he had secretly ordered the creation (by Henry Field) of a list of every Japanese and Japanese-American person in the United States.
[...] On November 15th, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall briefed the media on something we do not remember as "the Marshall Plan". In fact we don't remember it at all. "We are preparing an offensive war against Japan", Marshall said, asking the journalists to keep it a secret, which as far as I know they dutifully did.
[...] Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin (R-MT), the first woman ever elected to Congress, and who had voted against World War I, stood alone in opposing World War II [...] found that the Economic Defense Board had gotten economic sanctions under way less than a week after the Atlantic Conference [of August 1941]. On December 2, 1941, the New York Times had reported, in fact, that Japan had been "cut off from about 75 percent of her normal trade by the Allied blockade". Rankin also cited the statement of Lieutenant Clarence E. Dickinson, U.S.N., in the Saturday Evening Post of October 10, 1942, that on November 28, 1941, nine days before the attack, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., (he of the catchy slogan "Kill Japs! Kill Japs!") had given instructions to him and others to "shoot down anything we saw in the sky and to bomb anything we saw on the sea".
The article is very detailed and shows repeatedly the duplicity of those who have claimed that the strike on Pearl Harbor was a "surprise".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @03:11AM
gracious would you like a cigarette now?
but in all honesty ed, i fink i wuv uuuuuuuuuuu!!!!
so my little petite chou and just outta in'erest, what is it you propose?
serious question.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday December 09 2016, @10:31PM
Umm, no tobacco, but after dealing with Kallow I usually go take a toke to calm down :)
Well, truth be told, I really fink I wuv all of uuuu too. I can even envision a happy future with pieces of shit like Jmorris and Kallow living peaceably and prosperously. That would be a great "revenge" against them, to take back our lives and in doing so, make theirs better as well. The rising tide raises all ships.
Keep talking to me in French like that. I love it. It's so romantic and passionate, and reminds me of how the French literally rose up and killed the fucking rich to take their country. You invented the guillotines, and quite frankly, you've set the tone for what a real revolution is.
This is what I'm doing about it. It's at the bottom. [soylentnews.org]
Ultimately I'm proposing scapping/evolving/modifying the U.S government and our Constitution. This can be accomplished patriotically through several methods:
- An Article 5 Convention would allow us to rewrite the Constitution as a people. That's entirely within the current framework, so no terrorist connotations are possible. Even though they will of course be leveled at us. I mean, shit, JMorris wants us in GBay just for burning a flag, so I doubt this will be seen as patriotic.
- 2nd Declaration Of Independence. We literally use the same playbook of our Founding Fathers. That's very fucking patriotic, and as it is WORDS, again not a terrorist or treasonous act. That's a large group of people stating their grievances and demands.
- A plebiscite [merriam-webster.com] which is distinctly different from an A5 Convention because it happens outside of that process. It's all of us together using a 2nd DOI to quite literally create a new Constitution and vote on it.
- Massive general strikes. Our history, especially when viewed from Labor (American Workforce), shows us that the only way to get anything out out the Elites (aka Owning Class) is by bringing production to its knees. In other words, until if financially hurts them, they won't mitigate their own avarice influenced decisions. When we had massive strikes all across the USA, which is why it is called a General, that is what resulted in the NLRA and government finally getting involved. It was necessary to bring peace, and the workers DID win for awhile.
- CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES. One of the major reasons why the gains from the general strikes went away is that the Elites heavily gamed the economies with toxic trade agreements purely designed to allow them to outsource the work. Outsourcing is a good word, but it doesn't represent the fact that an American worker is now competing with a worker elsewhere. That competition is impossible to win from our side. If we CLOSE THE BORDERS economically speaking then the Elites are again forced to deal with us. In a physical sense they went to the other side of the room and started lobbing grenades at us, and we need to close distance and get on the ground with those fuckers Jiu Jitsu style.
- ORGANIZING. I cannot emphasize this enough. With a well organized populace, a 2nd DOI, and resources to conduct activities it's inevitable that would take back our government. We need to simultanously help people to stand up though, hence why it is so damn hard to get any traction. We're all slaves, so how do we do this while barely staying above water? ORGANIZATION!!! That's how. We organize all of our skills and resources together, representing each other interest's, and in general refuse to accept that poverty will exist in our country.
- Feet to Pavement. Online is fine and all, but it's heavily monitored by the Elites and used to crush dissent. Get off the Internet, get physically involved with people, and get moving!
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.