Text 19022, 90 rader
Skriven 2011-05-18 14:09:01 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
  Kommentar till text 18955 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: Thank you Osama (was: Thank You GWB)
============================================
18 May 11 06:01, Bob Ackley wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW>>>> Actually, if they knew the reality of it, they would have been
 RW>>>> attacked and murdered for sure. The Hawaiian Islands, especially
 RW>>>> Pearl Harbor, would make a great base for the Japanese' naval
 RW>>>> task forces as a jumping off point for invasion of the US. Or
 RW>>>> any other country in the Pacific.

 WD>>> Not at all because Pearl Harbor was unnavigable

 RW>> Not really.

 BA> Too shallow for big ships.  They had to dredge the h*ll out of it
 BA> before they could get the battleships in.

Which would have been a problem for the Japanese, in what way? They
certainly would be capable of dredging a harbor.

 BA>  And note that the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor only sank as far
 BA> as their main decks, the superstructures remained above water.  Those
 BA> ships drew about 30 feet of water, which means that the harbor was
 BA> only 40-50 feet deep.

Battleships of that class draw 38 feet...

 WD>>> Hence my statement stands:

 RW>> Not at all.

 WD>>> There was not a single resource there the Japanese needed.

 RW>> Proximity to the US west coast. A stepping off point to decimate
 RW>> the US fleet, stationed in San Diego Bay. They'd be there to
 RW>> ensure that the US didn't have a place to use for its fleet.

 BA> Proximity to US west coast?  2,300 miles away?  I don't think so.

Do you think Japan would have been closer? Hell, they traveled that far,
if not more, to attack Pearl!

 BA> Note that prior to 1941 the US Pacific Fleet was based at San Diego,

Yeup, I lived there, remember.

 BA> San Francisco and Seattle.  Pearl Harbor was a forward operating
 BA> base.  The fleet was moved to Hawaii in early 1941, ostensibly a
 BA> temporary measure - and seventy-odd years later it's still there.

And there was no reason for hte Japanese to not do the same, under the
same circumstances as Ward's ferry tale.

 WD>>> Their attention was elsewhere.

 RW>> Their attention was on the US and what she would do about Japanese
 RW>> aggression in the Pacific. We were already supplying China with
 RW>> aircraft.

 RW>> That's why the US fleet was attacked.

 BA> The attack on the US fleet had nothing to do with US support of the
 BA> Chinese. The fleet was attacked to immobilize it and prevent its
 BA> interference in Japanese expansion in Southeast Asia, the
 BA> Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and the other
 BA> Southwest Pacific islands.

And it's invasion of China...

 BA> It would have been MUCH more effective had the Japanese laid in wait
 BA> for the Pacific fleet and sunk it at sea in deep water.

They tried that in several places and got their ass' kicked.

 WD>>> Every country with an American base on its soil better think twice
 WD>>> ... someone might attack them.

 RW>> From within...Hawaii is not a country.

 BA> Only because the US conquered it in 1898.  Prior to that it was an
 BA> independent kingdom, recognized by the US government, AAMOF.

I know the history.

                R\%/itt


 ..."We will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail." - GWB


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