This
past Sunday was Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – “a day that will live in infamy,”
the President declared and many newspaper headlines echoed shortly afterward. If one were born on or before that infamous day,
they are at least 73 years old now. That
is old enough to have acquired some firsthand experience - old enough to amass
a lot of wisdom. The Japanese surprise-attack on Pearl Harbor was the “9-11” of
their generation.
On
that dreadful Sunday morning, the soldiers charged with scouting for enemy
aircraft that would seek to assault the island thought that they saw something
threatening in the sunny skies. But
nothing had happened before that date.
Surely those difficult to detect, barely visible aircraft they saw that
morning were American, right? Perhaps it
was just another friendly training mission returning to the island. After all, there was no state of war between
America and Japan. Wasn’t it just
another tranquil morning in a place that can truly be described as
paradise? Complacency is so
comfortable. Thinking the unthinkable is
just plain, well, tedious. Fortunately,
it is almost forgotten now, right?
As
a well documented article about that day in Wikipedia recounts the chilling
facts for us, “At 06:05 on 7 December, six
Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 183 aircraft composed mainly of dive
bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters.
Without warning and without a declaration of war, the Japanese hit American ships and
military installations at 07:51. The first wave attacked military airfields of
Ford Island. At 08:30, a second wave of 170 Japanese aircraft, mostly torpedo
bombers, attacked the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The battleship Arizona was hit with an armor-piercing bomb which
penetrated the forward ammunition compartment, blowing the ship apart and
sinking it within seconds. It was one of eight U.S. battleships at the dock,
five of which were sunk and the remaining three were badly damaged. Overall,
nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and 21 ships were severely damaged. The
overall death toll reached 2,403, including 68 civilians. 1,178 others were wounded during the
attack, including 35 civilians. Of the military personnel lost at Pearl Harbor, 1,177 were from the Arizona.”
As it turns out, those weren’t
American aircraft after all. If only those
men charged with watching would have had better hindsight, perhaps they would
have seen what was coming.
America’s vast ocean borders have
long served as a buffer from invasion. There
are those in Texas, California, and other border states that now think they too
detect a problem. They look to their
south and see a threat they think could unleash a torrent of trouble. Recent focus has been on the thousands and
thousands of unaccompanied illegal minors from Central America that have flooded
our southern front, but that is not the only source of the influx.
A
2014 intelligence report compiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
agency (CBP) and covered by The New
American reveals that, “1,443 people from China were apprehended while
crossing the U.S. border so far this year, with an additional 1,803 people
either turning themselves in to U.S. authorities at official ports of entry, or
being caught attempting to illegally enter at the ports of entry. Twenty-eight individuals from Pakistan were
apprehended while crossing the U.S. border this year, with another 211
individuals either turning themselves in or being caught at official ports of
entry. Thirteen Egyptians were apprehended while
crossing the U.S. border this year, with another 168 either turning themselves
in or being caught at official ports of entry.
Four individuals from Yemen were apprehended while crossing the U.S.
border in 2014, with another 34 individuals either turning themselves in or
being caught attempting to illegally enter at the ports of entry. Four individuals
from Somalia were apprehended while crossing the U.S. border in 2014. Another 290 either turned themselves in or
were apprehended at official ports of entry.
Since it is not possible to know how many people crossing our border
illegally escape detection, the above figures suggest that many more people
from across the globe have crossed our southern border, including some with
terrorist connections or originating in nations where the current Ebola virus
outbreak has occurred.”
The Center for Immigration Studies had a recent report regarding immigration
enforcement activity by ICE. They contend that enforcement continued to decline
significantly in 2014, according to ICE’s own records. They report that “total deportations credited
to ICE, the majority of which were illegal aliens arrested by the Border Patrol
and CBP officers at the ports of entry, declined 15 percent from 2013 to 2014.”
The report continues, “deportations
from the interior dropped 34 percent from last year, and are 58 percent lower
than the peak in 2009.” It concludes, “catch
and release policies continue. In 2014, deportation processing was initiated
for approximately 143,000 aliens out of the 585,000 aliens encountered by ICE
agents. Tens of thousands of those let go had been labeled a criminal threat.” Stunningly, “the number of aliens who have
received a final order of removal, but who are still in the United States, has
risen to nearly 900,000. Nearly 167,000 of these are convicted criminals who
were released by ICE and are currently at large.”
And just think, the Japanese came illegally
long before the alleged illegal executive amnesty was even being offered to
illegal aliens by Obama. With that in
mind, I offer only one admonition to all law-abiding Americans, Remember Pearl Harbor!
This column was printed in the 10 DEC 2014 Upson Beacon.
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