I have just finished reading today's article from the New York Times on Yahoo, about the USA's future plans to invade Iraq....the latest version. I find it extraordinary that a superpower can spend months and months calmly discussing its plans for future aggression in front of the whole world, as if speculating on the possibilities of the next Superbowl. Consider how this may look to much of the world, when an enormous power discusses clobbering yet another small country, rather like Al Capone talking about taking out a local barber who won't pay protection money...

Now, take that same article, and reproduce it almost word for word, simply substituting "Japan" for the USA, and the USA for Iraq...and here is what you get:

Japan Explores Strike Options Against USA-Tokyo Times Mon Jul 29, 1941 2:43 AM ET

TOKYO (East Asian New Bureau) - The Empire of Japan is exploring the concept of taking out Pearl Harbour and one or two key command centers and weapons depots first in the hopes of prompting a quick collapse of Franklin D. Roosevelt's ( news - web sites) administration, the Tokyo Times reported on Monday. The aim would be to kill or isolate key American command personnel and preempt the USA's use of weapons of mass destruction, whether against an incoming force, front-line allies or in China. The Pearl Harbour-first or "inside-out" approach would capitalize on the Japanese military's ability to strike over long distances, maneuvering forces to envelop a large target, the Times said, citing senior administration and Imperial Naval Command ( news - web sites) officials. Advocates of the plan say it reflects the desire to avoid committing a quarter-million Japanese troops, yet hits hard enough to succeed, the newspaper said. The advantages and risks of strikes aimed deep inside U.S.-controlled territory country and radiating outward are under discussion, though no formal plan has been presented to Emperor Hirohito ( news - web sites) or senior members of his national security team. Officials say it may be possible to paralyze the highly centralized and authoritarian USA command-and-control system. Mid-level officers are not taught to improvise, should they be cut off from commanders. While other options are being considered, the Pearl Harbour plan could appeal to allies of Japan who are nervous about a large-scale Japanese military deployment, the unnamed officials told The Times. Yet the 250,000-man figure could still be accurate, the newspaper said, as it might take that many troops to ensure that forces dropped into Pearl Harbour and elsewhere (such as the Phillipines) are not isolated or surrounded, bereft of support, food and ammunition. Defense Department deputy spokesman Rikyu Hashimoto had no comment in response to the article, the newspaper said.

Gosh, it all sounds so reasonable...so responsible...if you're Japanese...doesn't it? Now, imagine if they had had the sheer brass (and bad judgement) to publish that sort of stuff daily in '41, and how the world might have reacted to it at the time. Inconceivable. We are living in extraordinary times, when the most blatant things are done and said as if they were really quite ordinary.

- LH