Porch musings on the graveyard shift...

The only TV show I try to catch that starts at 3AM is RedEye. Once or twice a weeek I have the stamina.

Sunday night, however, RE wasn't on. And I was.

On comes Oliver North's War Stories, which are generally informative, inspirational, entertaining, but certainly not sarcastic and cynical enough to stay awake until 3AM to watch.

Sunday night, 'War Stories' was a real treat. Fascinating story about the WWII Pacific Theater, one battle in particular that I never heard of. And believe me, way back when, I watched every episode of "You Are There." I dig Naval action, if you get my drift.

Well, Sunday was so last night that I can't remember the name of the island 'we' were invading. Japanese were in their newly discovered 'honeycomb' defensive mode, three stories underground and impervious to the pounding of 16" guns. Now that part we've seen before.

What was interesting, beside the human side of the story, including that they kept fighting after Japan had surrendered, was that no one had a clear idea of (1) why they had fortified this particular place so elaborately, and (2) why, given the circumstances of the Pacific Front at that time, we bothered invading. At the end, both sides lost about 10,000 folks each.

Now before you're thinking I'm merely military-bashing, this riveting (really) 60 minutes of history triggered a thought that traveled to each of my brain cells. And that is, that in many ways Japanese played war like current day suicide terrorists do. Right down to the Kamikaze tactics.

The 'advantage' the current terorrists have is invisibility. In the case of Japan, we knew where they were. Seeing how many people could off themselves and their enemy on 12 square miles of rock, I started imagining what it would have been like trying to subdue Japan with standard invasion strategies.

We have heard millions of them and us would die, and God knows how much worse it would have been during a protracted fight on the Japanese mainland---think of the displaced birds and squirrels.

I shudder to think what would happen in similar circumstances today.
So here's where I'm goin': We were Goddamned lucky, as were the Japanese, that the US leadership of that day had some clarity of judgment and a set of balls. I shudder to think what would happen with today's cultural leadership in politics, media, and, yes, upper echelon State Department creeps, if we were facing similar circumstances. Oh. We are. Gulp.