Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(Midsummer 2005)
An ex-Brit gives his views - (without
fear or favor) - of the American Scene
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 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
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
where 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 Koreans 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, where 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.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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