Friday, July 24, 2009
That For Which There Is No Substitute
No, not a German sports car, but Victory. Unless you're Barack Obama, President and Commander in Chief of the United States. Then victory is nothing worth going after. At least in what he considers the good theater in the current war being waged against us, in Afghanistan. Here's what our President said:
I'm with MacArthur, there is no substitute for victory in war. Our President is a strategic maroon. He's also not much of a student of the Pacific Theater in WWII. Hirohito did not sign anything regarding a surrender with MacArthur, a small contingent of the Japanese Armed Forces and government (some in morning coats and top hats) went out to the Missouri and signed the surrender papers on September 2, 1945. I know this because my dad's destroyer, the Buchanan (DD 484), ferried them out to the Missouri. I've seen all his photos of the guys there on the dock and on the gangplank to his boat. No Emperor.
I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.
I'm with MacArthur, there is no substitute for victory in war. Our President is a strategic maroon. He's also not much of a student of the Pacific Theater in WWII. Hirohito did not sign anything regarding a surrender with MacArthur, a small contingent of the Japanese Armed Forces and government (some in morning coats and top hats) went out to the Missouri and signed the surrender papers on September 2, 1945. I know this because my dad's destroyer, the Buchanan (DD 484), ferried them out to the Missouri. I've seen all his photos of the guys there on the dock and on the gangplank to his boat. No Emperor.
Below is the delegation on the Missouri. The Japanese envoys Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed their names on the Instrument of Surrender. Still no Hirohito. I can't guarantee you that the ship these Japanese are boarding is the Buchanan. It might have been a different boat, and even a third one took the French to the Missouri. What were the French doing there? Hadn't they collaborated with the Japanese in Indochina throughout the war? Why, yes they had. I guess it was Free French on the Missouri. Even though their impact on the war against the Japanese was absolutely nil.
Labels: President Obama's Strategic Idiocy; Japanese Surrender
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 4:10 PM 
