|
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor 65 years ago, December 7, 1941.
Luckily, America was a great industrial power in 1941. We had manufacturing expertise, assembly lines, raw materials, and established trade routes for importing raw materials from other countries. Our parents and grandparents were able to gear up a giant war machine, respond and defeat a treacherous enemy who attacked without provocation. Even with such a giant war machine, and much determination, it was a terrible and costly war.
We might not fair as well if we had to defend ourselves from attack by a heavily industrialized nation if the same were to happen today. Our industrial capacity is being flushed down the toilet. American manufacturers are outsourcing to foreign countries with cheap labor, so that CEOs and stockholders will pocket more money. American consumers are buying goods made by foreign industry, while American products are being slowly unloaded in foreign ports. American manufacturers are getting waivers passed by legislators, so they don't have to pay export fees when they ship machines and other industrial tools overseas.
We are still a formidable military power, but our nations direction is influenced by corporate board members, oil executives, and former CIA agents, who have little concern for retaining a tremendous industrial capacity. As we become a nation of paper pushers rather than manufacturing experts and assembly workers, we give up an industrial base and replace it with reliance upon diplomatic relationships with industrialized countries that ARE capable of producing vehicles, weapons, and electronics. This is not a viable option for those of us who have watched our leadership prove they have little concern for exercising diplomacy and gaining international support. Even less of an option is a nuclear option. There is no nuclear option.
As we remember Pearl Harbor, and we remember the heroic acts in the Pacific, let us be reminded that the preservation of America as a world leader, depends upon more than blood of our soldiers to remain free. We need to strengthen American readiness to defend against all enemies, by building upon, rather than reducing, our domestic industrial capacity.
|
