Pearl Harbor Vs. 911: Fighting For Oil In The Name Of War!

“I have a friend who is half-Black & Half-Japanese; on December 7, she bombs Pearl Bailey…” Overheard inside a downtown Chicago subway station while waiting for an El train nearly one decade ago

64 years ago this day, (December 7, 1941) a bombing that is

well remembered and served its initial purpose for a day that would “live in infamy,” is also comparatively ironic, if not overused and compared to the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Towers in New York City. I am of course, referring to the unprovoked Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in then the future state of Hawaii territory.

This comparison of the terrorist attacks of that terrible morning in September and that terrible morning in December has no justification; there is nothing to compare to, except for maybe one small similarity, but I’ll get to that.

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor due to then-United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to suspend trade with Japan. A few years earlier, Japan went to war with China and was in desperate need of raw goods & materials and most specifically, oil.

Japan needed oil more than anything, but America saw to it that they would specifically starve Japan economically, so Japan devised a diabolical plan to take control of the West Indies and Southeast Asia, both countries which had a rich and plentiful supply of oil and minerals. Those two countries in Japan’s mind were a god-send.

Jello Biafra, lead singer of the first incarnation of the punk band, The Dead Kennedys and now a spoken word artist & lecturer, often suggests that most wars are started or breakout by either oil or oil interests.

The last few mini-wars have been started over oil too, but of course I’m getting a little ahead of myself just slightly.

Back in 1941, times were awfully different. American citizens were divided in terms of what they thought about entering another world war. After all, they had only participated in one approximately 27 years previously and weren’t exactly thrilled to be a part of another one.

But once the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor during their infamous “sneak attack” in the early hours of that December morning, Americans put aside their differences and came together in support of the war. Over the course of the next four years, Americans of all social and economic backgrounds came to the aide of their country by beating back the enemy-at-large, which turned out to be not only Japan, but Germany & Italy as well.

Sure there were those who didn’t believe in going to war, but those folks weren’t as widely reported about, as the main focus remained on beating the enemy. All sorts of propaganda tools were used as well, mostly through movies, cartoons, radio programs, government bond drives and scare tactics designed to make the enemy think twice about messing with America.

President Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor to the presidency after he died while serving his fourth term, effective ended the war in August of 1945 when he dropped a couple of bombs within two days of each other in Japan.

The current war against terror (supposedly) also was triggered by oil, though the person that provoked the war was none other than the current President of the United States, George W. Bush Jr. whose best interests at heart was the oil at stake in the Middle East.

It’s a war that has seen the senseless killings of over 2,000 American military personnel. It’s a war that has caused corporate greed by many interlocked with George Bush Jr. and his friends, plus the needless deaths of innocent civilians in Iraq, a country that never had anything harmful in it to start with. But of course Mr. Bush didn’t believe that.

He was out to get even with the leader of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein that his also-then United States president and father George H.W. Bush Sr. “let go” for reasons still unclear to this day.

The current war in Iraq and all points beyond has triggered a literal massacre and attack of a people that never asked to be involved to begin with. It’s sparked up insurgency attacks against Americans and anyone who dares to align themselves with America; all this for oil?

It seems insane, but of course President Bush and his friends say the war is a fight for freedom, with no actual plan to either withdraw troops anytime soon or present a reasonable agenda to the American people. No, this is a war that has become a quagmire for a leader of a powerful world country who has no clue as to what his strategy is, just to keep on punching and killing, all in the name of oil.

How and why this current war is compared with Pearl Harbor seems so trite. Two different eras; two different thought-processes; two different presidents; one wise, while the other a wise-ass.