Was the attack on Pearl Harbor a terrorist attack?
No, it was an act of war.Soldiers, sailors and airmen of major military powers are not terrorists, they’re uniformed members of their country’s armed forces, and subject to the control of their government. They may be given objectives of foreign conquest that involve terrifying the local inhabitants. That’s not terrorism.This is a good place to remind the questioner that word have actual meanings.A terrorist is a civilian subversive that is trying to bring about a political end that affects their own goals, and uses terror on a populace to do so. The objective is to terrorize said populace to the point that they feel that their own government is unable to guarantee their safety, and that the only way to make the terror end is to give in to the terrorists.Most governments are totally incapable of addressing the issue of terrorism, since the first thing they do is pass regulations and increase their bureaucratic hold on the nation. This achieves nothing except maybe making a stronger case for the terrorist.The other mistake is treating a terrorist like an ordinary decent criminal. Virtually no nation has any statutes on their books that really would work to prevent terrorism. The key is to put the terrorist outside the protection of the law, and then let uniformed professionals take care of the issue.Properly organized terrorists don’t just target the citizenry, but first and foremost the legal system. They kill the family of a judge in a particularly horrific way, and the use that to “remind” judges of what the expected outcome of a trial is supposed to be. They get lots of help from the international press and “human rights” groups. Well organized terrorist groups make money, mostly from narcotics traffic, and can use those funds to buy influence.Please note by this time, that none of this is the way an armed force works.So, the Japanese Imperial Navy struck the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in an act of war - indeed, they had carried out savagery in places like Nanking, China, but the objective was to simply be barbaric; they already held the town and much of the country so there was no reason to be terrorists, since they weren’t trying to subvert anything. They were simply acting like animals.Subvert is the operative word - soldiers fight to conquer or defeat an enemy or to achieve an objective. A terrorist is trying to subvert a political system to their own ends.It’s a big difference.
Was the London Blitz a terrorist attack similar to 911?
Terrorism is defined as the unlawful use of force and violence against non-combatants to intimidate or coerce a government or population in furtherance of political or social objectives. However, the Blitz was not terrorism. The German Luftwaffe launched raids on London and other British cities as part of the effort to destroy the British war effort and to terrorize the population into submission in hope they would force their leaders into ending the war. It's no different than the British bombing of German cities that killed 500,000 enemy civilians, just to do the same as the German Luftwaffe did to British cities. 9/11 was terrorism, Al-Qaeda bombed the WTC and the Pentagon not to destroy the war effort because to intimidate the government in regards to our foreign policy overseas. Both killed innocents who had nothing to do with foreign policy, including those who were in the military.
Which terrorist attack was worse - Pearl Harbor or 9/11?
I would say 9/11 was worse specifically because they targeted a large civilian structure as the primary target, with the secondary target being a military target (Pentagon). Pearl Harbor, while devastating wasn't really a terrorist act. It wasn't aimed to strike fear into Americans (definition of terrorism), it was aimed at destroying our Pacific military strike capability so thoroughly that we couldn't threaten their continued Imperial Expansion.
Similar to Operation Northwoods, could the Pearl Harbor attacks also be a CIA-staged operation to change public sentiment and push USA in the war?
Unclear how the CIA would play a role in doing such a thing, since neither it, nor its forerunner, the OSS, had been formed yet. The United States was rearming rapidly between the fall of France in 1940 and the outbreak of war with Japan, but before and during that timeframe, US covert operational and foreign intelligence capabilities were minimal at best; the US’ intelligence capabilities, especially in Europe, would rely to a large extent on the British. It isn't clear how Roosevelt would have created such a covert operations unit out of whole cloth, or how he could have possibly gotten away with creating a project with such a nefarious and un-Constitutional approach.The simple fact is that it just wasn't necessary to go to the trouble of contriving a ‘false-flag’ operation to bring the US into the war. The Japanese began invading Indochina in October of 1941, which gave Roosevelt the opportunity to impose an oil embargo against Japan as a punitive step, which in turn prompted Japan to embark on a military showdown with the Western Allies, the centerpiece of which was the attack on Pearl Harbor. If the Japanese hadn't ventured into Indochina, however, the next most likely way for the US to involve itself in the war would have been to continue expanding its role in escorting British supply convoys in the Atlantic until an American ship got torpedoed by a U-boat, in an incident dire enough to merit going to war.Also, the cost of building an exact working replica of the IJN’s carrier fleet and naval air arm to serve as the fake Japanese force in this ‘false-flag’ scenario would have been prohibitive. ;-)
Was 9/11 worse than Pearl Harbor?
SIMILARITIES: *More than 2,400 innocent people were killed from an air attack by foreign people on a single day *Happened on American soil *Changed America dramatically *Got America involved in a war *Got America discriminating against ethnic minorities and restriction of civil liberties DIFFERENCES: *The vast majority of the victims at Pearl Harbor were military personnel, mostly sailors. The vast majority of the victims on 9/11 were civilians, mostly financial workers and contractors. *Pearl Harbor was an act of war by a sovereign nation specifically on a naval base. 9/11 was a terrorist attack on two civilian buildings, one military building, and a failed attempt at a political building. *Pearl Harbor happened in Honolulu, Hawaii, an organized incorporated U.S. territory at the time. 9/11 happened in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, three U.S. states located in the continental U.S. *Pearl Harbor involved 353 of the attacker's own planes. 9/11 involved four commercial aircraft being hijacked by 19 terrorists and used as missiles. That said, no event is worse than the other. The two attacks had thousands of innocents killed and injured on American soil and therefore making both events tragedies, as one involved the killing of neutral people in the context of WWII and the other involved private individuals murdering people in time of peace.
Similarities and differences between Pearl Harbor and 911?
Similarities: -attacks by foreigners on US -attacks brought the US into war -invaders probably had no real plans to conquer the US mainland -invaders did not come out of nowhere; there was longstanding economic or political tension with the US -strengthened the political popularity of the sitting US president Differences: -9/11 targeted civilians whereas the Japanese targeted the military -Pearl Harbor led to the US entering a world war lasting 3.5 years from that point. 9/11 has so far led to several "low intensity" wars that have lasted 10 years. -Pearl Harbor led to a boom in the American economy by the last years of the war. 9/11 has helped push the US into economic difficulties.
Which was worse - Pearl Harbor or 9/11?
The following is a list of how many people were killed on Dec. 7, 1941 as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. US Navy: 2,008 KIA USMC: 109 KIA US Army: 218 KIA Civilians: 68 Total: 2,403 2,740 Americans died in the September 11 attack. And 236 foreigners. As of June 2004, the official death count is listed as 2,976, here So the worse for deaths is probably 9/11 but the US Pacific Fleet got destroyed and nearly 400 aircrafts were destroyed or damaged.It was also a huge embarrassment to both the US government and military. So if its up to War and Military I say Pearl Harbour .
What was it like to hear about the Pearl Harbor attacks on Dec. 7, 1941?
I have spoken to many people who lived through the second world war and even a few who lived and fought in the first world war. One man I spoke to was a professional Naval Officer serving in Pearl Harbor who happened to be on leave and back in the states on that fateful day. He was contacted by the navy and told to report to San Diego and was flown from there by Seaplane back to his post a week after the attack. He said everyone was angry, afraid of what would come next, convinced that the US would make Japan pay for what they had done. He told me that the Navy knew that Japan was a likely oppenent in a Pacfic region war, that he had seen war games that had a suprise Japanese attack on US Pacific bases yet had no explanation for the state of unreadiness of Hawaian military units on that fateful day in December 1941.There were many investigations held following the attack that tried to assign blame for the lack of preparedness of the forces involved. A commission headed by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, known as the Roberts Commission was held soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. General Short, along with Navy commander, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, was accused of being unprepared and charged with dereliction of duty. The report charged that he and Adm. Kimmel did not take seriously enough an earlier war warning and did not prepare for an air attack at Pearl. Latter investigations were not as conclusive though as the commanders the two were ultimately responsible.My mother remembered the air raid alarms on the west coast of Washington State, the giant black headlines in the newspapers, the fear of Japan invading Alaska or even launching naval attacks against San Francisco. She remembered all the men going to recruiting offices and enlisting in the military. She also remembers all that followed, the recycling drives for metal of all kinds, the victory gardens, the gas, butter, sugar, rubber, cooking oil, rationing. Her job at the Boeing Factory building B-17's and B-29's the regulations that forced the relocation to prison camps of the Japanese American farming families from her home town, and how the community took care of their property for them until they were released and allowed to come home and reclaim their property. The newspaper reports of Japanese submarine sightings off the west coast. The forest fires caused by the Japanese balloon bombs, though at the time the public did not know that was what caused them.
What do you think of Donald Trump saying "911 was worse than Pearl Harbor" because, Pearl Harbor was a military attack?
9/11 wasn't just limited to New York City. He apparently forgets that 343 FDNY firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers, including 33 PAPD officers and 23 NYPD officers, were killed while trying to rescue the civilians in the Twin Towers in New York City. Bin Laden anticipated that fire and police personnel would be coming to the Twin Towers to save the civilians so he expected them to die in the process as well. Terrorists also attacked the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing 55 U.S. military men and women working in their offices, along with 70 government workers. One of the 40 victims killed on board United Airlines Flight 93 when crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, happened to be a federal law enforcement officer who was one of the victims that fought the hijackers attempting to hit the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Acts of war only involves against enemy combatants and enemy war materials and/or by a nation against another. The people of Pearl Harbor were not combatants in a sense, because America and Japan were at peace with each other, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. While Pearl Harbor was a horrific tragedy, its aim was to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet, not to spread terror for a political reason, and it was done by a recognized nation, not by a terrorist group. 9/11 was a series of four coordinated attacks aimed to destroy landmarks that symbolized the U.S. and spread terror; the Twin Towers were symbols of the world's economic power, the Pentagon was a symbol of the world's military power, and the U.S. Capitol was a symbol of the world's political power. The Twin Towers were struck and were destroyed and the western side of the Pentagon received damage and the U.S. Capitol managed to avoid being targeted thanks to the passengers of the hijacked Flight 93 preventing the plane from striking a political target and nose-dived into the Pennsylvania field. Both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were tragic events and one cannot say which one is worse than the other. It's just plain disrespectful to the innocent lives lost in these fateful days. The fact is that thousands of innocent Americans from all walks of life died on December 7, 1941, and on September 11, 2001, and that we should give all memories to the victims who were brutally killed in these events.
What was worse, 911 or Pearl Harbor?
Its a bit of a trick question because it requires you to understand Islam and the mentality of Muslims overseas and the norms of their culture. Without any doubt in my mind, 911 was infintely worse. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and only Pearl Harbor for the pragmatic purpose of preventing the American Navy from stopping their imperialist intertia in Asia. The Japanese as a culture had no great hatred for American culture and in fact, it was and still is, part of their culture to respect the ingenuity and accomplishements of other cultures and in fact adopt them where superior. The attack of 911 however were symbolic of the longstanding hatred for the decadant and unclean cultures of the non-muslims and in particular the predominant American culture. Polls even today continue to verify the deep hatred Muslims have for American culture. Today Japan is one of Americas closets allies but such a reality will never be possible with Islamic countries, ever.