Remember Pearl Harbor?

Pearl Harbor ... We don't make a big deal out of it anymore, as my brother remarked in an email today.

In fact, about the most mention we get of Pearl Harbor these days is the administration's desperate attempt to hijack as a symbol of the Iraqi War.

9/11 changed everything! 9/11 is the new Pearl Harbor!

You know what? 9/11 didn't change everything. In fact, the current president is working overtime to make sure that all it changed was how much power he has - it's not affecting most of us in any way until we try to fly somewhere. Taxes didn't go up; there's no rationing; there's no draft. Unless you know someone in the military, there might as well not be a war. Not only don't many people don't read casualty reports, for the longest damn time the administration tried to keep the casualty reports hidden, as though no one was dying (they couldn't keep it up, but they still don't do much to highlight them).

12/7 changed things, changed lots of things.

And Pearl Harbor (whether it was a total surprise or not) put us into a war which was just - and which the entire country was involved in.

We should remember Pearl Harbor - not least because when it happened, we didn't run off and attack Thailand or Peru.