At 03:11 AM 1/27/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Marvin: >The 1967 war was much bigger in scope compared to this battle, but the >basic principles of deception and of taking advantage of unwariness >stemming from a religious observance remain about the same. > > >Marvin Long >Austin, Texas > >Me: >No, not really. That's why we have such things as laws of war, why there >are honorable and dishonorable ways of conducting a war - and of beginning >one, for that matter. In particular, in the case that you are describing, >the Hessians were foreign mercenaries suppressing a just rebellion against a >dictatorial government. They were, in other words, fighting an _unjust_ >war - as such, the bounds of what those fighting a just war could do to them >are considerably more expansive. The Arab countries were fighting an >_unjust_ war - they were launching an unprovoked attack on an innocent >state. In and of itself, that is immoral and attacking on Yom Kippur was an >aggravating factor. > >Even more strikingly, the Hessians were already at war. Tactical surprise >(what George Washington achieved) is the objective of any commander. What >the Arab countries did is more analagous to the Japanese attack on Pearl >Harbor in 1941. They _began_ an unjust war of aggression with a surprise >attack that in and of itself violated the laws of war, and compounded the >offense against morality by launching it during a time of religious >festivities. There is a very large difference between what you do when a >state of war exists and how you begin that state. By choosing to attack in >the way they did, the Arab countries did no more than dramatize their moral >collapse. There's all the difference in the world. > >Gautam
just to nitpick a bit, ;-), but the Japanese planned to deliver its declaration of war either a few minutes before or at the exact time Nagumo's carrier planes began their bombing runs over Pearl Harbor. this was consistent with their previous behavior in the Russo-Japanese war earlier in the century. this does not relieve the Japanese leaders from the blame for starting the war (which started with their wholly unjustified attacks on China); the line between an unexpected sneak attack and an attack which occurs at the moment war is declared is quite thin. as for the time of the attack, Japanese espionage agents in Hawaii had reported that the Pacific Fleet was almost always in harbor on the weekend, with the fleet at a minimal (if any) state of readiness on Sunday morning. that is what Yammamoto planned on. john
