Remember the Real Pearl Harbor

Today is the 64th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. That act of treachery drew the US into the world's greatest and most terrible war. Although some actions and behavior during that contest can be condemned (e.g., the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo, the Nagasaki bomb), I believe there is no question that the American response was justified and honorable. We should treat our World War II veterans with the greatest respect and thank them for their service.

But I also hope that we can think clearly and distinguish between that conflict and others, especially the one we're now fighting. Just as no one should use the "Hitler" comparison - nobody else is Hitler, and nothing compares to the Holocaust, thank God - let's take it easy on the WWII comparisons. The attacks on 9/11 were not like Pearl Harbor, and they called for a different response, part of which we sort of got more or less right. And the Iraq war really isn't anything like WWII, and postwar Iraq is not 1946 Germany or Japan. And Bush sure ain't FDR (or Wilson, or Lincoln, or TR; maybe Franklin Pierce?). Terrorists are a genuine but limited threat, and they can't really destroy our way of life anymore than Saddam could - but if we keep butchering our responses, we can do great damage to our own bad selves.

Let's really remember Pearl Harbor (and the Maine, and 9/11, while we're at it).