ilovestrategy -> RE: OT: Who is to blame for the failure to anticipate the Pearl Harbor attack? (12/1/2012 9:51:26 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Natali quote:
ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy Maybe on a tactical level it was brilliant but IMHO, it was a colossal strategic blunder. The Americans viewed it as a sneak attack. With the Germans it was just business that we had to do, but the Japanese became public enemy number one. A couple of years ago Terminus called Japan in 1941 a 3rd world country with 1st world ambitions, and I think that is pretty accurate. Edited because of my poor one finger typing skills....... I don't know from Terminus, but this "3rd world country" stuff is nonsense. Nothing but todays look at things and to yesterday. And it's wrong. The Isrealites were a bunch of 3rd world goat herders that whacked one of the foremost civilizations of the time (Phoenicia), and carved a nation out of the remnants. The Mongols were a bunch of 3rd world goat herders that whacked several of the foremost civilizations of the time (too numerous to mention), and carved a nation out of the remnants. Fredrick II inherited a 3rd world principality that whacked one of the foremost civilizations of the time (Austria), and carved a nation out of the remnants. The Unites States were a set of 3rd world colonys, that whacked one of the foremost civilizations of the time (Great Britain), and carved a nation out of the remnants. The Confederate States were a set of 3rd world agriculturalists, that fought against one of the foremost industrial civilizations of the time. They lost, but not by much. So what is this nonsense about how you gotta be some 1st world industrial power to even think about starting wars. People have been doing that successfully for millenia. Who the heck are you 21st century wargamers, in your comfy chairs, to talk about things you know nothing about. Japanese did what they thought needed to be done. Wasn't what we would have thought, but who the hell are we. They ran a Country, they ran a Navy, they ran an Army, and we didn't. Who won? We did. In 1945 we had more fleet carriers than they had capital ships. We were bombing Tokyo at will. And this was over the expanse of the Pacific Ocean while we were getting ready to cross the Rhine on the other side of the world. And this was while building the atomic bomb. To put it simply, Japan decided to take on the big boy on the block and got whipped. Heck, in 1943 our new carrier force was bigger than the KB. They did not have a snowball's chance in Hell. They got off to a really good six month start but fell apart after that. Taking on the world's industrial powerhouse and uniting it's people by making yourself public enemy number one was a mistake that doomed them.
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