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Newt Gingrich: "75 years ago the Japanese displayed professional brilliance"

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Pagusas

Elden Member
Since the Smash Mouth thread just got locked, I'll ask here:

Is knowing the anniversary of Pearl Harbor really a thing normal people know offhand?

Yes. It's like knowing 9/11, they are extremely similar in regards to there historical importance to Americans. I remember right after 9/11, people all over were saying it's this generations Pearl Harbor.


On a different note, is HBO'a pacific any good? Does it cover the naval battles like midway?
 
On a different note, is HBO'a pacific any good? Does it cover the naval battles like midway?
The TV Show? No, it's primary focus is on the hard fighting on the islands and all the difficulties that the marines had to deal with. It really doesn't come close to Band of Brothers.
 

CazTGG

Member
This goes beyond being historically inaccurate, this is simply obscenely ignorant. I'm not even American and I feel insulted by this. What goes on in the mind of these bigoted, brain-dead excuse for political hacks that makes them think saying this "brilliant" remark is a good idea?
 
Not only is he wrong but he is also wrong. The raid on Pearl Harbor was an abject failure. They didn't hit the fuel storage, command buildings, munitions dumps. They also completely failed to search out the carriers. It was the biggest mistake Japan ever made.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
On a different note, is HBO'a pacific any good? Does it cover the naval battles like midway?
It's solid, but it's not Band of Brothers, for a couple reasons. It doesn't really follow one straight story, with the lead trio of characters taking different paths through the war, and it's very interested in how bleak it was for the soldiers. I'd say it's telling a less triumphant story.
 
Well I guess
mITKTFA.gif
 
Since the Smash Mouth thread just got locked, I'll ask here:

Is knowing the anniversary of Pearl Harbor really a thing normal people know offhand?

President George H.W. Bush fought in the Pacific in WWII, and he couldn't remember when Pearl Harbor was:

Remember Pearl Harbor? Legionnaire Bush Doesn't

September 07, 1988|United Press International

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In an address to the American Legion today, Vice President George Bush astonished the veterans by declaring, "Today is Pearl Harbor Day," jumping the gun by three months.

Bush's error dumbfounded the 6,000 people attending the 70th annual convention of the American Legion and set them to murmuring among themselves during his speech.

"Today, you remember. I wonder how many Americans remember. Today is Pearl Harbor Day," the Republican presidential nominee said to a stunned audience.

"Forty-seven years ago to this very day, we were hit and hit hard at Pearl Harbor and we were not ready," Bush said.
"Freedom is on the march," said Bush, who, when realizing his mistake, diverted again from his text.

"Did I say Sept. 7? Sorry about that--Dec. 7, 1941, 47 years," the vice president said to applause.

"I'm glad I corrected that. I saw this guy (in the audience) shaking me off out here," he said as the Legionnaires laughed.
 
The reactions in this thread.. It's possible to observe history impartially, and understand the achievement of what was then an enemy, especially so if they have since become an ally.
 

daveo42

Banned
The reactions in this thread.. It's possible to observe history impartially, and understand the achievement of what was then an enemy, especially so if they have since become an ally.

I would say there's a time and a place. Today isn't that day and Twitter isn't anywhere near the right place. Besides, he's in it to drum up fear of attack from outside entities so we help to throw more money into the military, add weight to the "need" for a police state to keep up safe, and more people thrown out of the country that some deem "radical" thanks to the color of their skin, their religion, an/or their country of origin.
 

SteveO409

Did you know Halo invented the FPS?
Everything he just said was factually correct

This man wrote several war novels about World War Two, he is a huge military history nerd.
 

akileese

Member
What argument is there that the surprise attacks were "brilliant"? Setting aside moral outrage, the U.S. still had a badass Navy after Pearl Harbor. If their objective was to cripple the U.S. fleet, they failed. And they lost.

The fleet absolutely was crippled, but they missed the Aircraft Carriers that were out at sea. This attack was planned for quite some time and the only reason the carriers were not at Pearl Harbor was due to a 24 delay from bad weather. Had they actually made it back in time well, we'd probably be living in a very different world right now.

Newt is a humongous history nerd and as other have said, he's written a few alt history books with William R. Forstchen. It's actually pretty much the only thing I find interesting about him.

With that said, this is completely and utterly tone deaf in message. There is a way to word this in which you can appreciate the strategic prowess of the attack while still respecting the people who lost their lives because of the attack. He failed to do that on all fronts.

E: For what it's worth. I have no problem with the content of his tweet, but strictly the verbiage of it.
 

jfkgoblue

Member
Yes. It's like knowing 9/11, they are extremely similar in regards to there historical importance to Americans. I remember right after 9/11, people all over were saying it's this generations Pearl Harbor.


On a different note, is HBO'a pacific any good? Does it cover the naval battles like midway?

Its good, but people were expecting BoB 2 and its not that so many people hated it.
 

Xe4

Banned
What an extrorinarily stupid thing to tweet. I know it looks better in context, but people don't look at context. I literally cannot beleive he typed out those words, said "yeah that's ok", and submitted it.
 
The reactions in this thread.. It's possible to observe history impartially, and understand the achievement of what was then an enemy, especially so if they have since become an ally.
Pre-emptively bombing a "neutral" nation is worth celebrating? Especially when partiality is a thing and you can realize what Japan was fighting for was horrendously wrong? And as someone else mentioned, they fucked up anyway in actually going through with the bombing.
 

kmfdmpig

Member
Pre-emptively bombing a "neutral" nation is worth celebrating? Especially when partiality is a thing and you can realize what Japan was fighting for was horrendously wrong? And as someone else mentioned, they fucked up anyway in actually going through with the bombing.

The tweet doesn't celebrate the attack.

Are newspapers that write that a terror attack was "well-planned and coordinated" celebrating the result or simply reporting on what happened.

You can argue that the tweet is inappropriate, trying to use a day that should be remembered for victims to make a political point about the dangers of surprise attacks, etc.., but it's not celebrating the attack.

On a different note, is HBO'a pacific any good? Does it cover the naval battles like midway?

It's fairly good, but not at the same level as Band of Brothers. If BoB is a 10/10 (and it is) then Pacific is a solid 8.5/10. It's much better than much of GAF would lead you to believe, but not quite as good as BoB. It tries to cover a wider scope by having the main characters go separate ways, but that is an awkward middle ground between covering the larger war and focusing on specific troops.
 

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
The reactions in this thread.. It's possible to observe history impartially, and understand the achievement of what was then an enemy, especially so if they have since become an ally.

cool so any other achievements we should praise? How about that Burma railway? pretty efficient. You just just don't see workmanship like that these days.
 

facelike

Member
Maybe he's just warming us up to the new perspective in American politics. "You know dem Nazis, that whole Pearl Harbor thing, it ain't so bad, they may have been right".
 
He didn't say he supported the attack, just that it was clever and well executed.

There is no need to conflate the two.

Praising the strategy and having sorrow for the fallen soldiers are not mutually exclusive
 

Xe4

Banned
Newt loves his history - he's just being objective about the strategy the players displayed.
There's talking objectively about history, and then there's having tackt. He's praising the strategy of the second biggest attack on the US, ever. People are still alive who remember that attack. Shit, dudes a politiciam, he should know better.

Imagine if he said this or something simmilair about 9/11. Just imagine the shitstorm. Alternatively, imagine if a Democrat said this.
 

Rival

Gold Member
Do guys like Newt just sit around all day thinking about stupid shit they can say? He was the Speaker of the House and yet he's a complete dumbass.
 

Costa Kid

Member
The media often praises terrorist groups like ISIS for how well co-ordinated and brilliant their attacks are, so people shouldn't be complaining about that aspect.

I think this is the wrong day to praise the Japanese when he should be praising the lives of the Japanese and Americans who died that day.
 
Yes. It's like knowing 9/11, they are extremely similar in regards to there historical importance to Americans. I remember right after 9/11, people all over were saying it's this generations Pearl Harbor.

It's clearly important to our history, there was no arguing that. But enough that people commit its date to memory? Not so much. I haven't found a person I know yet who would have honestly been able to tell me today was the anniversary had it not been told to them before hand.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
The media often praises terrorist groups like ISIS for how well co-ordinated and brilliant their attacks are, so people shouldn't be complaining about that aspect.

I think this is the wrong day to praise the Japanese when he should be praising the lives of the Japanese and Americans who died that day.
a) It's definitely the wrong day to casually praise Japan's execution of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

b) It's a simplistic claim about a complicated situation.

c) It's gross to use it to foster fear over the possibility of similar surprise attacks today.
 
It's clearly important to our history, there was no arguing that. But enough that people commit its date to memory? Not so much. I haven't found a person yet who would have honestly known today was the anniversary had it not been told to them before hand.

Well, there goes WWII. Straight to the wind!
 

gohepcat

Banned
Everything he just said was factually correct

This man wrote several war novels about World War Two, he is a huge military history nerd.

"professional brilliance" is a fucking disgusting thing to say. What the fuck is up with people defending him here?
 
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