Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect
V.
(January 2007)
Bill Sykes
looks back in retrospect at material which has been published
in previous editions of "View from America",
in an attempt to determine whether the subject matter
written then is still applicable in today’s world.
These observations have been extracted from Bill Sykes'
News Letter "View from America".
Mid-Summer
2005 Edition.
Article #5B
An imaginary conversation between an American
father and his son.
As this story is fictitious, and concerns an imaginary
conversation between a father and his college graduate
son concerning questions the son has about America’s
involvement in past and present wars, it behoves me to
state that war is not a subject that should be discussed
lightly and certainly should not be the subject of derisive
comment.
Son: "How’s the war going Dad?"
Dear old Dad: "Which war son - the current war in Iraq,
or Afghanistan, and then of course we have the threatened
wars with Iran, Syria, North Korea, and China?"
Son: "The current war with Iraq of course".
Dad: "Well son, the President of the United States, the
Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State, and other
officials tell us every other day that we are making
headway against the insurgents, and we are making progress
in installing democracy in both Afghanistan and Iraq".
Son: "If we are as they say, gaining ground against the
insurgents, how come so many of our soldiers and Iraqi
civilians are still being killed by the insurgents on
a daily basis?"
Dad: "Wars aren’t won overnight son, unless
of course you take into account the dropping of atomic
bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War Two".
Son: "Was that a good thing or was it a morally reprehensible
act of vengeance by the United States for the Pearl Harbour
incident?"
Dad: "You have to recognise that anything goes in war,
and seeing that the dropping of atomic bombs by United
States aircraft on two Japanese cities saved countless
American and Allied lives then by all accounts these
acts were justified even though it did kill a million
or so Japanese civilians in the process".
Son: "Why did we go to war with Japan in the first place?"
Dad: Well, let me see. America really didn’t want
to get into the war in Europe and so instead we entered
into a "Lend/Lease" agreement with Great
Britain where we provided them with money, weapons, ships,
aircraft, and all the other accoutrements of war, so
that they could be the prime defender of the faith and
fight the war in Europe".
Son: "So it was the bombing of Pearl Harbour that got
us into the Far East war?"
Dad: "Depending upon who you listen to, we were supposedly
taken completely by surprise when Japan attacked Pearl
Harbour on the 7th of December 1941 and Japanese aircraft
and ships destroyed most of the American Pacific fleet.
We immediately declared war upon Japan and at same time
on the eleventh of December 1941 Germany declared war
upon the United States and we were then committed to
send American troops to fight the war in Europe".
Son: "So why did Japan bomb Pearl Harbour in the first
place, and is that what really what really got us involved
in World War Two?"
Dad: The reasons given by our government as to why Japan
attacked the American fleet are vague to say the least,
but it can be argued that the placement of an embargo
by America upon the delivery of oil to Japan and freezing
Japanese assets in America, maybe gave the Japanese a
reason to retaliate".
Son: So America simultaneously went to war with Germany
and Japan even though we really didn’t want to?"
Dad: "Yes son. Eventually with the help of Great Britain
and other Allies, we won the war in Europe and we defeated
the Japanese in the Pacific".
Son: "So what about all the other wars that we’ve
been engaged in during the last sixty years, such as
North Korea and Vietnam, to name but a few?"
Dad: "We freed the Korean people from Chinese and Russian
communism, and also freed the Vietnamese people from
a similar fate".
Son: "But didn’t the war in Korea divide the
country into two nations with a demarcation line at the
38th parallel, and also didn’t we split Vietnam
into two separate states, North and South Vietnam, and
very soon after American Forces pulled out of Vietnam
the South Vietnamese army capitulated and the North Vietnamese
communist forces took over?
So, did we really win the war in Korea and in Vietnam,
or just appear to win?"
Dad: "Well, with the help of our allies we won the wars
in Europe and Asia, but unfortunately in other wars that
we were in, (or are currently involved in), we won the
war but lost the peace".
Son: "I seem to recall that we did a similar thing, (pull
out when the going got really tough), in several other
places such as Beirut, Mogadishu, Central America. Do
you think that we will follow a similar pattern in Iraq?"
Dad: "No son, this is one war that we have to win, and
we will win because our nation’s oil supplies depend
upon establishing a democratic government in Iraq !!!"
Son: "So if we are helping people of other Muslim countries
embrace democracy, why do so many people hate us?"
Dad: "I don’t think that they really hate
us son, they just envy our democratic affluent life style".
Son: "Then why did they attack us on the 11th of September
2001, and continue to conduct terrorist acts worldwide
against American nationals?"
Dad: "There are many violent people in this world who
see America as an aggressor nation bent upon trying to
force American type democracy and American type lifestyle
onto Muslim nations. It would appear that the Muslims
don’t wish to embrace either of those principals,
and they certainly don’t wish to be seen as puppets
of an American government".
Son: "So, do you think that I should volunteer to go
and fight to defend the security of the United States
and protect our oil interests?"
Dad: "If you were a National Guard volunteer and had
been called for duty with the colours, then you would
be obligated to meet your commitment and serve your country
wherever your service was required".
Son: "But I didn’t volunteer for the National
Guard dad".
Dad: "OK son. Without wishing to be tagged as being an
unpatriotic American citizen, my answer in this particular
situation is "Hell no son". If it was
a case of defending our shores from imminent dangers
then every patriotic American should without question
rally around the flag and serve their country to the
last drop of blood. You have to recognise son that war
is hell and too many young Americans are still being
killed in the Middle East wars even though the war was
declared by the Bush Administration to have been won
at least a couple of years ago, and yet we really haven’t
made very much post war progress in installing democracy
in Iraq, or any other Middle East country for that matter".
Son: "So does this give me an out on this occasion for
not going to war but still manage to retain my democratic
principles?"
Dad: "That’s your decision son but in the
current situation if ever this government re-institutes
a conscription draft, which it may have to do in the
near future in order to satisfy the people of America’s
desire to get this disastrous war over and done with,
perhaps you should consider travelling north of the border
as your mother and I would prefer to have one live son
in Canada than one dead son in Iraq or Afghanistan".
My comments:
Please remember that this is an imaginary conversation
between two fictitious people and as such should not
be misconstrued as being a discussion between a real
American father and son. Although the above is a fictitious
conversation, I’m sure that somewhere out there
in these United States there are real live people with
real live concerns about the safety of their sons and
daughters who are serving gallantly in the Middle East
wars, who may be espousing the same sentiments as this
fictitious father
Some very brief relevant information:
1) Pearl Harbour: During the period 1941/1942 Japan invaded
South East Asia, The Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and Singapore. As Japan had
to import 90% of its oil products, its war efforts were badly affected when
after their occupation of Vietnam in early 1941, President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt placed an embargo upon the exportation of oil products to Japan and
froze all Japanese assets in the United States. I would suggest that possibly
this could be a major reason for Japanese warships and aircraft attacking Pearl
Harbour on the 7th of December 1941.
2) The war in the Far East: America apparently misjudged Japan’s
warlike intentions, and when Japan invaded the Philippines, American forces
were unprepared and forced to surrender on the 8th of April 1942. Corregador
fell on the 5th of May 1942 and many American troops died on the infamous Bataan
death march. British troops, who were badly outnumbered by the Japanese, fought
courageously in Burma and on the Malaysian Peninsular to support America’s
war against Japan, and also to protect British interests in that area. The
British Forces were outnumbered by Japanese forces and were unable to retain
control of British possessions in the Far East, such as Hong Kong, Singapore,
and Rangoon, which also fell to the Japanese in February of 1942.
Many British
military personnel and civilian employees were taken
prisoner and ended up in slave labour camps were lack
of food, malaria, and other tropical diseases took its
toll and many did not survive the rigours of Japanese
prison camps. The Japanese were notorious for their sub-human,
uncivilized, and barbaric treatment of prisoners and
often subjected them to unbelievable physical violence,
horrific torture, and brutal beheading.
Japan achieved significant victories during this time
period, but their victories came to an end between May
and December of 1942 with the battle of the Coral Sea,
the battle of Midway, and a series of bitter fought engagements
off the Solomon Islands. American forces eventually got
the upper hand in the war against the Japanese and defeated
them at several locations before the final coup-de-grace
when American bombers dropped atom bombs on the cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the war in the
Pacific.
3) The Korean War: Fear of Russia
occupying the whole of the Korean Peninsular, lead to
a suggestion from President Harry Truman that the country
be divided into two nations, North Korea and South Korea,
with a demarcation line at the 38th Parallel.
In 1948
a Communist regime was formed in the North of Korea under
Kim Il-Sung, and the Republic of Korea was formed in
the South of Korea under Syngman Rhee. North Korean troops
eventually crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South
Korea on the 25th of June 1950.
With the start of the Korean War, General MacArthur was
ordered by President Truman to send American troops to
assist the beleaguered South Korean forces. The American
and South Korean troops forced the withdrawal of the
North Korean army across the 38th parallel and advanced
as far as the Yalu River on the border with China.
At this time the Chinese army crossed the North Korean
border and forced the American/South Korean forces to
retreat back to the 38th parallel.
General MacArthur was recalled by President Truman in
1952 and was dismissed on the basis that he had disobeyed
orders from the President by advancing across the Chinese
border.
Korean War truce negotiations began at the village
of Kaesong, (which is located a short distance south
of the 38th parallel), and were transferred to Panmunjom
in October of 1951, were a truce was signed on the 27th
of July 1953.
An agreement was reached that a military demarcation
line would be established at the 38th parallel and that
the United Nations Military Command Commission would
be based there. American troops are still stationed at
the border after all these years.
I said that this was going to be a very brief description
of relevant information, and as you can see, that is
what it is - a very brief description of events that
took place during the Korean, Vietnamese, and Far East
wars.
To view the complete Mid-Summer 2005 edition please click HERE
Disclaimer:
Some of the information gathered for this newsletter
is gleaned from American and International media sources,
(including the Internet), and as such is quoted as accurately
as possible. I try to obtain confirmation n on each subject
from several outlets, so the text is a mixture of composite
news items and personal comments and therefore the reader
must make his/her own judgement as to the reliability and
degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.
We
welcome feedback about any of the contents of these articles.
Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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