The Gift of State Terror.

Gift to Japan.

Japan suffered from radical politics prior to WWII. Any voice of reason was cut down or scared away from public life, leaving only the militarists to decide its fate.

Once out of Japan, the Imperial Army behaved without moral restraint, indulging in mass rape and executions, cannibalism,^[1][2] human biological experimentation (Unit 731),^[3] mistreatment of prisoners, and inculcating

Australian Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet New Guinea 1943.
(Source: note 2.)

in Japanese troops the duty to fight to the death. American and Australian troops quickly adapted to the realities of battle with Japanese infantry and obliged them by the thousands in their desire to die pointlessly.^[4] It really wasn't a big deal to adapt.

Japanese assassination politics benefited some in Japan in the short term. Eventually, they led to the earnest, systematic, and and ferocious retribution provided courtesy of Curtis LeMay and Paul Tibbets.^[5]

In Osama bin Ladin's case he was riding high for a few weeks before he ended up taking up permanent quarters in caves and nasty hovels, now ever captive to the twists and turns of primitive tribal political calculations. Make no mistake, whether by inevitable betrayal or military or police success, his fate parallels that of the Japanese fanatics.

A few Islamic terrorists may score marginal successes here and there in the West. Should they ever cause any catastrophic damage, however, those who live in the country of origin of the attackers will envy those who lived in the Japanese cityscape depicted at the top.

As infuriating as 9/11 was, it still didn't do much really to inflame the majority of Americans. The tidal wave of bumper stickers that followed were insipid, to say the least. "United We Stand." Whoa! When do we march? Well, on Tastee Freeze, week after next, maybe, but not any time soon to any recruiting station.

Oh, where oh where is the Great Disdainer, Sam Kinnison, now in our hour of need?

"Beware the Great Satan," "Stay tuned for the invasion nearest you" or "Now that we got an invitation, we'll be sure to drop by soon for a visit" are more the Colonel's style in bumper stickers. Perhaps, if the sad reality of hundreds of people in the Towers jumping to their deaths had been photographed and broadcast without censorship the outrage would have been greater and less transient. Visually, for the most part, it was an astounding architectural event. The real human losses were obscured from view. Fortunately, the cell phone conversations with the other planes could not be downplayed.

Beeee thattttt as itttt mayyyy, another such strike, or a worse one, will positively end debate on the goals of U.S. foreign policy (hint: white hot revenge), leaving dispute only over the "how" of our retribution. The orchestrators of the kiddie bombers and the occasional pinprick here and there really ought to think this deal through.

And may God bless and keep Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet and his loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. He took a horrible death like a man and we owe him better than what we are doing now.

Notes
^[1] The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes. By Edward Frederick Langley Russell Russell of Liverpool, Lord, C. B. E., M. C. Russell.
^[2] Murder and Cannibalism on the Kokoda Track. In Japanese War Crimes. By James Bowen, Pacific War Historical Society,
^[3] UNIT 731. Human Logs Light Military Research Fires. By David Guyatt, 1997.
^[4] Touched with Fire: the Land War in the South Pacific, By Eric M. Bergerud, 1996.
^[5] From statement by Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets (USAF, retired) at the Airmen Memorial Museum, June 8, 1994:

Most writers have looked to the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; to find answers for the use of those atomic weapons. The real answers lay in thousands of graves from Pearl Harbor around the world to Normandy and back again.