Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Barry Rubin: The Original September 11: President Franklin Roosevelt Announces the Pearl Harbor Unpleasantness, Updated Edition



By Barry Rubin
What if President Roosevelt announced what happened at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, by the standards of today’s official view of September 11? Imagine, if you will, you’re sitting in a rocking chair, listening through the static of a 1941 radio. It might have sounded like this:

My fellow Americans, this morning forces of the Imperial Army of a foreign country that I better not mention lest it stir up chauvinism and racism visited American facilities at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. They dropped by without warning.

On the other hand, however, we can understand their motives. OK, I’ll say the “J” word! After all, we have discriminated against Japanese people for decades. We can understand why the Japanese people feel a grievance against America.


In addition, in a unilateral and bullying manner, we introduced sanctions against Japan to stop it from expanding its empire in China by mass murder there. U.S. support for China has angered the Japanese people who believe that China has no right to exist.

Who are we to judge?
Continue reading The Original September 11: President Franklin Roosevelt Announces the Pearl Harbor Unpleasantness, Updated Edition


Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press in January 2012. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reportsand now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas Media

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