After watching the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" for the umpteenth time I find we have learned absolutely nothing from history.
In the 1930s, prior to WWII Brigadier General "Billy" Mitchell pleaded with top military officials to build safer planes as the ones back then were virtually made out of flimsy material and many fliers died earning these planes the nickname "flying coffins."
When his first letters were ignored, Mitchell wrote again charging those officials with gross incompetence and complete disregard for the safety of those men willing to lay down their lives for their country. He was court-martialed and during his trial, he was sarcastically asked what crystal ball he had been gazing into making such outlandish predictions which were: In the future planes will be designed to fly across both Atlantic and Pacific oceans and a plane would be designed to fly faster than the speed of sound but, the one astounding prediction he made was that Pearl Harbor would be bombed by the Japanese.
He was then stripped of his rank and forced to forfeit five years of pay.
Remember, prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor there was only one lane for ships to either enter or leave the harbor. The military staff in Pearl Harbor pleaded with Washington, D.C., to take the fleet out of the harbor but some elite officials chose to ignore the warning and ordered the fleet to remain, leaving the ships bottled up like sitting ducks.
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Nothing has changed with officials in Washington on both sides of the aisle with their inflated egos, lust for power and concerns for the safety and welfare of American people seemingly a low priority. So are you willing to listen to both sides of the story or let someone else do your thinking for you?
Dolores Zaske
Pine River
