Reflecting on America's Resolve: 72nd Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack

Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Americans reflect on what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy,” let us also remember the resolve Americans and the U.S. military showed in response.

The attack killed over 2,400 Americans, destroyed nearly 200 aircraft, and sunk or damaged eight battleships. Japanese officials intended to maim the U.S. fleet to deter America from fighting Japan’s advances in the Pacific, but they failed to account for the resiliency of the American spirit.

Six of the sunken battleships were quickly resurrected from the sea bed, and fortunately, the U.S. aircraft carriers were not in Pearl Harbor that day, thus preserving one of America’s most important naval assets. While the Japanese hoped the attack would bring the U.S. to its knees, Americans responded undeterred. Leading up to the Battle of Midway, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz promised “to meet our expected visitors with the kind of reception they deserve.”

Admiral Nimitz recognized one major strategic weakness in the Pacific Fleet: the U.S. Navy did not have sufficient maintenance capabilities forward deployed in the Pacific. Putting these secondary assets in place proved essential in outlasting the Japanese. In battles such as Coral Sea, Midway, and Tarawa, American aircraft carriers proved to be a decisive factor.

The U.S. Navy today faces similar challenges with both fleet size and maintenance. The shipbuilding budget has been chronically underfunded for years, jeopardizing the production of new carriers, destroyers, submarines, and support vessels. As a result, older ships are kept in the fleet longer and deployed longer without maintenance. Fleet readiness has fallen. For example, mechanical failures forced the USS Essex, an amphibious assault vessel, to cancel numerous deployments. One mechanical failure even resulted in the Essex colliding with a tanker.

Via: The Foundry

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Liberal Paper Endorses Romney: Time For Another Change

TENNESSEAN ENDORSEMENT

This has been a presidential election that should be held up as a cautionary lesson for the future.

The lesson? How low American politics can stoop, and how to avoid it ever happening again.

The 2012 presidential race is fraught with confusion and failed expectations, so much so that it is surprising that any reasonable voter would feel comfortable pressing the button for either President Barack Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney. What is downright infuriating is that, after four years of an Obama presidency and two years of campaigning and 22 televised debates by Romney, so many questions remain and it is difficult to discern what the next four years would look like with either man in charge.

Aside from 1860, when Abraham Lincoln took charge of the nation on the brink of civil war, and 1932, when Americans devastated by the Great Depression turned to Franklin Roosevelt for hope, few elections have been so critical to the country. In 2012, the United States faces crippling debt; seemingly endless military conflicts and terror threats; an aging population; and sweeping workforce and geopolitical changes that threaten to turn our society upside down.

America needs strong leadership; yet, our leaders in Washington have seldom looked more impotent. The Democratic Obama administration and Republican leaders in Congress have butted heads for four years, and the American people have little to show for it. In that period, only two major initiatives, the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank financial reform, have passed, and Gov. Romney promises to roll back both if elected.

And we look for a signal from either of the candidates that he will be the one who leads red and blue states into to an honest dialogue that will move America forward with its founding principles intact.

On issue after issue, however, Obama’s and Romney’s positions shift or lack assuring specificity:

Via: The Tennessean

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Barack Obama to hail himself as the new Franklin D. Roosevelt: President promises 'bold, persistent' leadership like FDR during the Great Depression

President Barack Obama will tonight lay out his case for being re-elected to a second term by comparing himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won an unprecedented three presidential elections and led America to recovery after the Great Depression.

He will say: 'And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one.'

Obama will formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination, capping a week in which speeches from his wife Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton, the husband of his erstwhile rival, received widespread praise.

He will tell Americans: 'Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.'

Roosevelt dominated American politics for the 12 years of his presidency and beyond. He is commonly recognised as the greatest Democratic president and, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, one of the three greatest American presidents.

Not only did he bring America out of the depression, he oversaw the introduction of the New Deal social programmes, laid the foundations for the United Nations and led the country in the Second World War after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, dying just when victory was in sight.

Excerpts from tonight's speech released in advance showed that Obama would attempt to frame the election not as a referendum on his four-year term, during which unemployment has risen to 8.3 per cent, leaving more than 23 million Americans out of work, but as a choice between him and Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee.

'On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties,' he was due to say. 'It will be a choice between two different paths for America. A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.'

This November's election, he argued, will represent 'the clearest choice of any time in a generation' between two different visions.

Via: Mail OnLine

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