There are curious parallels between Pearl Harbor and 9/11, but the biggest one is the one that got away. 

In the speech below, President Roosevelt illustrates our anger and resolve, much as President Bush similarly illustrated our anger and resolve post 9/11.

What got away is that we kept our resolve in WW2, but in the modern era we have lost our resolve to political correctness, liberalism, and special interest.

In WW2 our nation resolved to win and did whatever it took to succeed.

Now, it seems like we not only have no resolve to win, we actually can’t wait to fail.

Go to Hawaii.  Go to Pearl Harbor.  Go to the USS Arizona Memorial. 

It should be required of anyone who wishes to enter Military service.  To stand on the platform knowing how many men were entombed in the waters below you, to see the occasional bubble of oil from the wreckage…I was active duty Air Force when I took these pictures, and I was stunned by the enormity of it.  I could find better pictures on the web for this tribute, but these were the ones I took in 1988, and they remain seared in my memory.

If you want a lesson in the price of freedom,  and the necessity for resolve, then you know where to go. 

Here is President Roosevelt’s speech:

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-infamy.htm

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.