The first blunder: “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” and the second:“Never believe that Americans have lost the will to fight.”

Sixty-four years ago today, the Japanese military attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor and other military bases on Oahu. The surprise attack, which began at 7:55 a.m., lasted two hours during which nearly 2,400 people were killed, 21 U.S. ships were heavily damaged, and 323 aircraft damaged or destroyed.

The Japanese military, knowing that many Americans did not want to fight a war against Japan, had calculated that if it suddenly destroyed the U.S. fleet, America would simply give up and allow Japan to consolidate its grasp on East Asia. Instead, the American public was enraged and the U.S. quickly declared war.

Japan had many early successes in the war against the U.S. and Britain, but the U.S. victory at Midway Island in June 1942 led to the steady encirclement of the Japanese islands, cutting them off from needed supplies of raw materials. The Japanese navy was destroyed. When this was followed by massive bombardment from the air and the final blow of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese invincibility was proven to be a myth. At the end of the war, the Japanese nation was not only starving and devastated by the bombing, but bewildered and shocked by the defeat. (Source: Columbia University, East Asian Curriculum Project, Japan and the United States at War: Pearl Harbor, August 1941.)

All because they underestimated the American will to fight.

[More:]

In an article entitled, Has the U.S. Lost the Will to Fight? (published on September 11, 2000, exactly one year before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon), Richard Halloran writes:

The perception that the U.S. has lost the will to fight arises from several sources, notably the agonizing war in Vietnam that ended in defeat a quarter century ago. Since then, Americans have engaged in other failed operations in Lebanon and Somalia and appeared to have been gun-shy in Bosnia and Kosovo.

A careful reading of U.S. history in the 20th Century, however, shows that Americans will fight in causes they understand to be vital to their principles or national interests. The Kaiser’s Germany thought the Americans would not enter World War I in Europe, but they did in 1917 to turn the tide in favor of the allies.

The classic miscalculation was the Japanese surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor naval station in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, which they Japanese thought would destroy both the U.S. fleet and the American will to fight. Instead, it aroused Americans to a mighty war effort. The memorial over the sunken battleship Arizona, which still lies on the bottom of the harbor, marks America’s greatest defeat. But 200 meters downstream is moored the battleship Missouri, on which the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945. The symbolism of defeat and triumph in the two warships is inescapable.

Another miscalculation came from North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, who was encouraged by Mao Zedong of China and Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union to invade South Korea in June, 1950. A badly trained U.S. Army reeled under the attack but the nation, led by feisty President Harry Truman, rallied to aid in the successful defense of South Korea.

Later, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, thought the Americans would not fight after his forces invaded Kuwait ten years ago to threaten the vital oil resources around the Persian Gulf. But the U.S. massed 500,000 troops in Saudi Arabia and, in a coalition with other nations, crippled the Iraqi army in a Desert Storm that lasted only 100 hours.

Today we’re fighting another global war, this time against terrorists, and it was begun as a result of the same miscalculations about America’s willingness to fight and sustain casualties.

After watching the Clinton Aministration’s humiliating withdrawal of American forces from Somalia after the Battle of Mogadishu, Osama bin Laden in an interview with ABC’s John Miller, had this to say:

After our victory in Afghanistan and the defeat of the oppressors who had killed millions of Muslims, the legend about the invincibility of the superpowers vanished. Our boys no longer viewed America as a superpower. So, when they left Afghanistan, they went to Somalia and prepared themselves carefully for a long war. They had thought that the Americans were like the Russians, so they trained and prepared. They were stunned when they discovered how low was the morale of the American soldier. America had entered with 30,000 soldiers in addition to thousands of soldiers from different countries in the world. … As I said, our boys were shocked by the low morale of the American soldier and they realized that the American soldier was just a paper tiger. He was unable to endure the strikes that were dealt to his army, so he fled, and America had to stop all its bragging and all that noise it was making in the press after the Gulf War in which it destroyed the infrastructure and the milk and dairy industry that was vital for the infants and the children and the civilians and blew up dams which were necessary for the crops people grew to feed their families. Proud of this destruction, America assumed the titles of world leader and master of the new world order. After a few blows, it forgot all about those titles and rushed out of Somalia in shame and disgrace, dragging the bodies of its soldiers. America stopped calling itself world leader and master of the new world order, and its politicians realized that those titles were too big for them and that they were unworthy of them. I was in Sudan when this happened. I was very happy to learn of that great defeat that America suffered, so was every Muslim. …[Emphasis mine.]

As Christopher Hitchens writes in A War to Be Proud Of:

I am one of those who believe, uncynically, that Osama bin Laden did us all a service (and holy war a great disservice) by his mad decision to assault the American homeland four years ago. Had he not made this world-historical mistake, we would have been able to add a Talibanized and nuclear-armed Pakistan to our list of the threats we failed to recognize in time….

Hitchens goes on to show what Bin Laden’s blunder has resulted in:

(1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi’s Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction–a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.

(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.

(4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.

(5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)

(6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.

(7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region–the Kurds–and the spread of this example to other states.

(8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy.

(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.

(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat.

Thankfully, America’s military has always risen to any challenge, even when they’re being let down by some of their fellow citizens and politicians at home. As we commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, remember the sacrifices these brave men and women have made and continue to make in our name.

[Update] RedState.org has posted the text of FDR’s declaration of war against Japan.

[Update] Michelle Malkin has an excellent post on why it is some people are choosing to forget about Pearl Harbor.

[Update] Rand Simberg muses on the differences between the present Global War on Terror against Muslim extremists and the World War II struggle against fascists.