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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 15, 2026

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What was duplicitous about it?

Everything I was taught growing up that made Pearl Harbor "a day which will live in infamy."

It goes against my basic sense of Americanism.

I don't know enough about the prelude to WW2, but unless the Americans had been using insurgent movements in the Far East to attack Japan, its interests and its allies, funding and directing them more like an irregular part of their military than an ally, for decades, then the situation is not quite the same (I know the US did try to strangle Japan economically, but I think there's something different about economics and waging indirect warfare). Clearly Iran's been poking the bear constantly so getting a reaction at some point is to be expected. The situation more like a bully getting sucker punched after years of abuse; sure he can claim it came out of the blue and was unprovoked and that it wasn't him just his cronies that were doing the violent bullying and some dumb teachers might care, but he damn well deserved it and in a just world it would have happened sooner.

The US did fund Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalists in the late 30's.