Pearl Harbour and Afghanistan

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

For many years in the post war era, Japan was looked upon, with regard to manufacturing at least, as the smartest country in the world. The gloss has faded a bit but Toyota is still chasing the top spot for the world's largest car producer - and it makes money too.

So how on Earth did they come to attack Pearl Harbour? Surely, this was one of the dumbest decisions of all time. A small chain of poxy little islands with negligible natural resources takes on the mightiest nation on Earth, a nation that had yet to reach the height of its power. And not only that, they actually knew that the US carriers were at sea and could hit back at them.

Stupid. Why even the Huns, Vandals, Visigoths and the rest waited for Rome's decline before having a go.

And so to Afghanistan. What the hell are we doing there? No western power has ever won there. The Afghan wars of the 19th C had their moments but there was no long term gain and quite a bit of loss. And much later, the Russians had a go and it ended up just the same as Vietnam. I'd quit and leave them to it.

No, no, you say, what about the civilian casualties? Well, I don't have the numbers but I wonder if they would be any worse if we walked away.