Sixty-five years ago today the United States was shocked into the reality of the war that engulfed the world around them. Perl Harbor was attacked by the 1st Air Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the intent of destroying the Pacific fleet, including several air craft carriers and oil tank farms as well as numerous other battleships and military outposts. 2,403 Americans lost their life that infamous day.

Immediately after the attack we declared war on Japan. There was no need for world support, the world was at war, and we were just attacked. War was the obvious, and necessary action which needed to take place. Days later Germany declared war on the US, and we were compelled to enter the war in Western Europe. The war could not be against just us and the Japanese it had to involve us and those who were Japan's allies, and us and those who had declared war on our country and much of the rest of the world.

Throughout World War II there was great national support for the war on both fronts, and while families did not want to lose their children the understood the risk as a necessary one in most cases. We were involved in a war on the grandest of stages and we were fighting an immoral state. While we didn't know the extent of Germany's "sins" until much later, it is most certain that it was a just war.

The war was not all sunshine and lollipops, however. There were defeats, and the situation remained bleak at times. Thousands of men died and only a policy of absolute surrender could defeat the resolve of our enemy and it was only after this absolute surrender that we were able to rebuild the defeated countries and turn them into the democratic nations they are today.

Five years ago the United States was shocked into the reality of a war that had been engulfing the world for some time without anyone paying attention to it. The World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists with the intent to destroy the United States one piece at a time. 2,973 Americans lost their life that infamous day.

Immediately after the attack we declared war on terror. We then set about getting world support for such a war. There was support for our entrance into Afghanistan, after all the Taliban and other terror groups had declared war on the United States openly and vocally. We did not want to limit the war to just Afghanistan, however, we wanted to take out those who supported terrorists, whether it be physically, financially, etc. The world did not agree with this broader war, to liberate the people of Iraq and to fight those who supported terrorists. The truth of course was that parts of the world were in a scandal with the Iraq leader, but then again why were we asking the world's opinion anyway?

The war on terror received great national support for quite some time. It wasn't until after we ousted Saddam and we realized that there were no WMD's that the country lost its resolve. It forgot about the fact that the country like so many others were bankrolling terrorists and that those were our enemy. Democrats were hungry for power and further undermined the war effort by dividing America in the time when it most needed uniting. We knew about the "sins" of Saddam before going in and it still didn't lead many Americans to believe that liberation was in fact the right decision.

We completed one of the most powerful military campaigns in history and took over a country faster than has ever been done before, yet we failed to create absolute surrender for the terrorists themselves and are left still fighting those battles. While ultimate surrender may not be possible in this case, it explains why rebuilding Japan and Germany was easy in comparison to rebuilding Iraq. Interestingly enough, Germans and Japanese people wanted us out of their country in those instances too we were just smart enough to not listen to them.

The worst part about all of this is that what we are not in the ending stages of a war like we began in 1941 we are in the beginning stages. We are in the last years of the decade before World War III if we don't find a way to stop things now. Islamic extremism is rampant throughout Europe and flooding into the United States. Liberalism, politically correctism, and socialism are leading us to a path of appeasement. The United Nations is doing less than slapping the hand of aggressors and the nations of radical Islam are calling for the destruction of the west all while they seek out Nuclear weapons. Islam is seeking the return of their messiah and would like to bathe the world in blood to make it happen.

The board is set, the pieces are moving. I don't want the world to go to war. But waiting on the edge of one we can't escape is even worse. We need to hold fast in Iraq and don't give in to what is before us on the horizon. We will come to it soon, the great battle of our time, and I fear that there is not stopping what has been started.