"Pearl Harbor could have been prevented readily enough, by simply following the age-old policy that during negoitiations with a hostile nation the place of the fleet is at sea, location unknown. Instead, our mighty Pacific Fleet was all racked up in neat rows in a known harbor."

Fair enough, but putting fleets to sea for indefinite periods is ridiculously expensive and up to WWII, the US was notoriously cheap when it came to military spending. Remember the films of the first draftees training with wooden guns and shooting at "tanks" that were old cars with ply wood turrent attached? We'd been pushing Japan for over six months and no one expected them to attack Pearl, how long would they have had to stay out. Besides, all the dispatches were expecting trouble futher east closer to Japanese bases of operation, so no one in the chain of command even thought of that.

Amos, you don't think Al Qaeda changed the scale and nature of international terrorism? This isn't the Baader-Meinhof Gang we're talking about or even Libya.