PURITAN NEWS WEEKLY

www.puritans.net/news/

10/17/08

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

By Parnell McCarter

Robert Higgs has helpfully chronicled “How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor” at http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1930 :

“…the Roosevelt administration, while curtly dismissing Japanese diplomatic overtures to harmonize relations, imposed a series of increasingly stringent economic sanctions on Japan. In 1939 the United States terminated the 1911 commercial treaty with Japan. “On July 2, 1940, Roosevelt signed the Export Control Act, authorizing the President to license or prohibit the export of essential defense materials.” Under this authority, “[o]n July 31, exports of aviation motor fuels and lubricants and No. 1 heavy melting iron and steel scrap were restricted.” Next, in a move aimed at Japan, Roosevelt slapped an embargo, effective October 16, “on all exports of scrap iron and steel to destinations other than Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere.” Finally, on July 26, 1941, Roosevelt “froze Japanese assets in the United States, thus bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end. One week later Roosevelt embargoed the export of such grades of oil as still were in commercial flow to Japan.”[2] The British and the Dutch followed suit, embargoing exports to Japan from their colonies in southeast Asia…Roosevelt and his subordinates knew they were putting Japan in an untenable position and that the Japanese government might well try to escape the stranglehold by going to war. Having broken the Japanese diplomatic code, the Americans knew, among many other things, what Foreign Minister Teijiro Toyoda had communicated to Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura on July 31: “Commercial and economic relations between Japan and third countries, led by England and the United States, are gradually becoming so horribly strained that we cannot endure it much longer. Consequently, our Empire, to save its very life, must take measures to secure the raw materials of the South Seas.”[3] Because American cryptographers had also broken the Japanese naval code, the leaders in Washington knew as well that Japan’s “measures” would include an attack on Pearl Harbor.[4] Yet they withheld this critical information from the commanders in Hawaii, who might have headed off the attack or prepared themselves to defend against it. That Roosevelt and his chieftains did not ring the tocsin makes perfect sense: after all, the impending attack constituted precisely what they had been seeking for a long time. As Stimson confided to his diary after a meeting of the war cabinet on November 25, “The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.”[5] After the attack, Stimson confessed that “my first feeling was of relief ... that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.[6]”

Just as Roosevelt’s Administration had its reasons for wanting Pearl Harbor, the Bush Administration would have its reasons for wanting an Islamic attack on America at this time. The Administration needs to jumpstart efforts in the current Middle East conflict, as well as have a rationale for militarily addressing Iranian nuclear capability. Given America’s flagging economic situation, America’s days of economic superpower status are probably numbered, and that economic superpower status underlies its military superpower status. The time to act is now, but the American public would need to be behind it. And another Islamic terrorist attack in America would surely buttress that public support.

Perhaps this explains why America has been expanding its visa waiver program. http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=37060 explains this program:

Al Qaeda Could Exploit U.S. Visa Program, Feinstein Says
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
By Kevin Mooney, Staff Writer

“(CNSNews.com) - U.S. Homeland Security officials should adopt a more restrictive approach to the visa waiver program rather than expand it at a time when terrorists are probing for immigration loopholes, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill. Feinstein is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, which heard testimony in September on the “Visa Waiver Program: Mitigating Risks to Ensure Safety of All Americans.” The visa waiver program (VWP) allows citizens in participating countries to enter the United States without obtaining a visa or being interviewed or screened in U.S. embassies and consulates. Bush administration officials are “moving aggressively” to expand the program to include 13 new countries before the end of the year, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report released in late September…”

If there is an Islamic attack in coming months, do not be too surprised. And if it precipitates an all-out war in the Middle East, even World War 3, do not be too surprised either.