Never Forget...

 (Attack on Pearl Harbor)

ANOTHER SAD DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
Today, December 7, 2012, marks the 71st anniversary of the attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor that launched us into World War II.

 (Buchenwald Concentration Camp)

READ THE PREVIOUS POSTS
I've written about this many times, including last year, HERE, where I provided links to other entries.  I hope you will take the time to visit that entry and read the comments attached to it.  Included therein is a list of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach residents who survived that terrible, costly war.  More than 400,000 Americans lost their lives fighting to keep this country free.

 (Manzanar Internment Camp)

STUDY THE HISTORY
Please take a few minutes today to remember what this war was all about.  The History Channel has an excellent site, HERE, which includes archival video and audio clips and photos.  Additionally, you can find an excellent history of the war at the Wikipedia site, HERE.

 (Hiroshima)

BEYOND BELIEF!
Some of the statistics of that war are staggering.  About half way down the Wikipedia page there is a chart that shows the numbers of war dead and injured by particpating country.  85% of the total caualties were on the Allied side - mostly Soviet and Chinese - who suffered deaths and injuries in the tens of millions!  It's estimated that 60 million people died in that war - 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.  Stop and think about that for a second.

 (Surrender on USS Missouri)

PLEASE GIVE THANKS...
So, today - "a date that will live in infamy", according to then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt - please pause and give thanks to the brave men and women of my parents generation - The Greatest Generation according to author Tom Brokaw - for the courage and sacrifices they made to insure our freedom.  Here's a chart to put that war into perspective.  Click on the image to enlarge it.

September 11, 2001 Recalled, Again

ANOTHER YEAR...
It hardly seems possible that we have reached yet another anniversary of the attacks on our country that occurred on September 11, 2001, and yet, here we are.  I've written about that dastardly event each year since then that I've had this blog.  You can read my post from last year HERE.  There you will also find links to several others.

WE GOT HIM, BUT...
On May 2, 2011, just a few months short of the tenth anniversary of the attacks, United States Navy Seals - Seal Team Six - located Osama bin Ladin in Abbotabad, Pakistan - a country we curiously consider an ally - and killed him, closing that particular chapter in this horrendous event.  While I felt some degree of relief when I heard the news, I didn't feel particularly safer.  I never did expect bin Ladin to show up on my doorstep with an AK-47.
 

THE MONSTER, OSAMA BIN LADIN...
When Osama bin Ladin was killed sixteen months ago - you can read the Wikepedia account of his death HERE -  I was happy that the mastermind of the 91101 attacks had been killed, and I was also a little disappointed because, even though he apparently died of gunshot wounds, it's unlikely that he suffered sufficiently for his crimes.  My preference would have been to capture him alive then submit him to exactly the same kind of death those thousands of people in the Twin Towers suffered that morning.  He should have been run through a wood-chipper alive and those pieces then shot from a cannon for the same result.  Yeah, I know... how barbaric of me.  Well, take a look at this photo of Christine Hanson, the youngest known victim in the Twin Towers.  When the towers came crashing down on her and the others in the buildings they were vaporized!  Several shoes were found in the debris, but no bodies and few body parts big enough to identify were located.  Yeah, I think my preference would be the right one.  If you wish to know more about the victims of 91101, CNN has maintained a site for us.  I've kept the link on my home page - over on the right - for your use.  Or, just click HERE.

CASUALTIES CONTINUE TO MOUNT UP
According to a recent Washington Post report, more than 6,570 U.S. servicemen and women have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since then-president George Bush launched our response to the events of September 11, 2011.  I am deeply saddened for those loses.  I have a 20 year-old great-nephew presently deployed in Afghanistan with the United States Army as a rifleman - shown on the left of this photo while on patrol - and I worry about his safety every single day.

COSTA MESA REMEMBERS ON TUESDAY
Tuesday, September 11, 2012, the City of Costa Mesa will hold a remembrance ceremony at the City flagpole to which the entire community is invited.  The event begins at 9:45 a.m. and there will be a moment of silence at 9:59 to honor the 2983 men, women and children who died that day.  I hope you will join me and other neighbors for this short remembrance.  I also hope none of you will ever forget the events of September 11, 2001, just as my generation will never forget the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 - as then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, "a date that will live in infamy".

NEVER FORGET AND NEVER FORGIVE