The Rising East
AFTER the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Adm. Isoroku Yama-moto of the Japanese Imperial Navy was supposed to have lamented: "I fear we have done nothing but awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." Maintaining resolve
may be the toughest
battle in this fightWhether Yamamoto said that or it was a fanciful line from the pen of a Hollywood screenwriter for the movie, "Tora, Tora, Tora," matters little because the quote accurately reflected what is known of the admiral's thinking. He understood the Americans, having studied at Harvard, served in the Japanese Embassy in Washington, and played poker with the best of them.
In a similar vein, the eminent historian, Stephen Ambrose, says that Dwight Eisenhower, later to command the greatest invasion force of all time when it went ashore at Normandy in 1944, once wrote his brother, Milton: "Hitler should beware the fury of an aroused democracy."
The response of Americans to the terrorist assault of Sept. 11 has surely filled the nation with a terrible resolve and the fury of an aroused democracy. From President Bush on down, Americans have vowed to destroy the network of terrorists led by Osama bin Laden who took the lives of 6,000 civilians, not for revenge but to fulfill a pledge that never again will Americans be so vulnerable.
After nearly four weeks, however, the question is whether the nation can sustain that resolve and fury for the arduous campaign against terror envisioned by President Bush. The president and his national security team appear on television and before the press almost daily to assure the American people that they are in what the president has called "hot pursuit" of the terrorists in Afghanistan, which has given haven to bin Laden.
THAT WAS ECHOED last week by Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, in a stirring condemnation of the terrorists: "There is no compromise possible with such people. There is no meeting of the minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it, we must."
Meantime, the United States has deployed aircraft carriers, submarines and surface warships to the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean; bombers and fighters to undisclosed bases in the region; ground troops to Uzbekistan north of Afghanistan; and possibly teams of special forces covertly into Afghanistan. From all indications, Afghanistan has been surrounded and the forces are coiling, ready to strike.
That, however, is where it has stopped, at least so far. Unless the rhetoric is translated into action, three dangers may arise:
>> American resolve will dissipate as the memory of Sept. 11 fades and people return to normality, even if it is different from that before Sept. 11. Dissent will spread, political disputes will erupt and inertia will set in.
>> The Taliban will take heart, believing that the Americans lack the guts to spill blood in their own defense. For many days, they have dodged and delayed as they have sought to a negotiate a way out. That will continue.
>> The coalition that President Bush has painstakingly assembled will begin to unravel as it becomes apparent that the Americans are all talk.
THE PRESIDENT thus faces a daunting decision. The choices, however, are not so stark as some commentators contend. They argue that Afghan civilians would die just as did Americans in New York, which would be immoral, or Afghanistan has few worthwhile targets. On the first point, most Afghans near potential targets have fled over the last month.
Second, the United States could send its message by destroying the Taliban's anti-aircraft missile sites, tanks and artillery, ammunition and supply depots, its small air force, terrorist training camps, headquarters and communication centers away from residential areas -- all genuine military targets.
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered Japan struck as soon as possible. Four months later, American B-25 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier Hornet, dubbed Shangri-La, and bombed factories and military bases in Japan. Strategically, it was a pinprick but American morale soared and the Japanese, who had been told their homeland was invulnerable, were thunderstruck.
Given the differences between 1942 and 2001 in the speed with which the world moves, four months then would be about one month now. Oct. 11 must be a tempting date to strike back.
Richard Halloran is editorial director of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at rhalloran@starbulletin.com
