Pearl Harbor Day

December 7, 1941 – a day that shall live in infamy.

I would like to take a moment to remember the men who lost their lives 62 years ago today at Pearl Harbor. Not many people even knew where Pearl Harbor was that day. Over the next few days, Pearl Harbor became known to thousands of parents, wives, brothers and sisters, sweethearts and friends when they received word that their loved one died or was wounded in the attack.

The world changed that fateful day. We now knew where Pearl Harbor was. We were now at war. It was a just war, and a war that we would win. Many more men and women would die or be wounded in battle. Civilians would also die. That’s a fact of war, and it’s a tragedy.

Sixty-two years later we are fighting another battle. Not a declared war, but a war nonetheless. More men and women have lost their lives or were injured. Still more will lose their lives in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. That’s what happens in war. It’s not something that anyone wants to have happen. No one wants to see young men and women die. No one wants to see civilians die. It’s the cost of freedom.

We are free to make decisions. We are free to become successful in our lives and we are free to decide what is successful. We are free to disagree with our leaders. We are free to state out loud and publicly that we disagree. Not all citizens of the world have those freedoms.

Had we not responded sixty-two years ago, who knows where we would be today? We would not be the people, the country, we are today. We would not have responded as we did in Afghanistan or Iraq.

No matter what your feelings are about our reasons for being in Iraq, one thing is clear: we are there. Now, we must finish the battle. If we don’t, then all the men and women who sacrificed their lives since the Revolution will have died in vain.

And that would be a tragedy.