Not at all. President Trump's dementia symptoms and relative ignorance have been on display for years. If one is aware of the general pattern, any particular instance is more or less expected.
Just coincidentally, I recently finished reading a book about the events leading to the Japanese attack on the US Navy fleet in Pearl Harbor. Given what the book discussed, I think it's fair to say most people don't really know what happened. Yes, they know some details about the attack itself and the consequences (US entry into World War 2). But, as a history buff, I was surprised at how little I knew about the political and geopolitical factors which pushed the US and Japan into a war neither nation (or, at least, neither nation's chief executive) wanted. Our schools and our media do a very poor job of explaining the "Why it happened?" of Pearl Harbor, even if most people know something about the "What happened?"
Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply SP. Is it true that a Japanese diplomat was in D.C. meeting with the president at the time of the bombing? Happy Tuesday to thee! :)
Not exactly. Without going into too much detail, the United States made diplomatic demands upon Japan which Japan could either accept...and risk massive rebellion within their empire and a borderline civil war at home, or attack the United States Navy to prevent the US from interfering with Japan annexing resource-rich territories in Asia and Oceania.
The Japanese government hoped the United States would back down from its demands and tried to negotiate a less-burdensome settlement almost until the attack was launched.
Per the book I read, the stress of having failed to negotiate a workable settlement and having to deliver a declaration of war (a war the Japanese government knew it could not win) caused the Japanese diplomatic corps in Washington to get rip-roaring drunk. Their collective drunken bender delayed them getting the war declaration document written up and sent, so it was finally delivered to the relevant US government office after the Pearl Harbor attack was already underway.
While that may seem like a small thing, it had enormous propaganda consequences. If the declaration of war had shown up even a few hours earlier, then the attack on Pearl Harbor would have been (by international law standards) a legitimate military attack. Because the attack occurred before the declaration of war was delivered, the attack could be called an unlawful/immoral "sneak attack", which made motivating the war-averse US population much easier.
Wow! Isn't that a fine kettle of fish? The delay was by how much? So a military strike is okay if you notify the target in advance? Now I've heard everything! Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply SP. This makes it even worse. Maybe a heads up might have saved some lives. We will never know! :(
This post was edited by RosieG at January 21, 2020 7:34 AM MST
There have been many works suggesting that Roosevelt knew the Pearl Harbor attack would happen and either deliberately provoked the Japanese into making it and/or did not make any significant effort to prevent it (either diplomatically or militarily).
I don't think the evidence quite supports those theories. What does seem to be indisputable is the United States DID have warnings a Japanese attack was coming (with Pearl Harbor the most obvious target), but those warnings were either disbelieved or failed to prompt significant action by the people receiving them. I think a combination of excessive focus on the ongoing war in Europe and a naive hope/belief that Japan would back down were the main psychological factors causing US inertia.
Just like george w et al were warned about an upcoming attack in August but paid little attention to it resulting in 9/11? One wonders what kind of human would knowingly subject his country's citizens to certain death? For political gain? What did the phony fake bogus lies that got us to invade Iraq produce that was beneficial to us? We invaded a country innocent of having harmed us and we are still there. Go figger! Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply SP and Happy Wednesday to thee! :)
SaltyPebble 