Don Crawford

Don Crawford

President of Crawford Broadcasting and the voice of the STAND Podcast

Are We Ready?

We weren’t ready December 7, 1941.

The Naval Fleet in Pearl Harbor was not the least bit ready for the Japanese attack on our Pacific Fleet. The battle of Pearl Harbor, which the Japanese termed Hawaii operation or Operation Z during the planning was one-sided and consequently disastrous for our great country.


Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia. Among those attacks were United States territories in the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island. If reasoned the Japanese, the Pacific Fleet were crippled or eliminated, the U.S. would be powerless impotent in the Pacific Naval Military Theater.

At 7:48 AM that fateful December 7, 1941, 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers attacked in two waves. These 353 destructive planes were launched from six aircraft carriers and the destruction they caused accomplished the results they sought. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged and four were sunk. The Japanese attack also sank or damaged three U.S. cruisers, three destroyers, an anti- aircraft training ship and one minelayer. 188, 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed. The destruction was unbelievable.

More importantly, 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Some 3,600 American sailors were dead or out of the war. The Japanese, in contrast, suffered little damage, losing 29 aircraft and five midget submarines. Only 64 servicemen were killed, again as compared to 3,600 Americans killed or wounded. The destructions of Pearl Harbor came as a profound shock to the American people. Never before had any foreign nation attacked Americans on American soil producing such incredible damage. WE WERE NOT READY!

The very next day, December 8, 1941, the United States through Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan. In retaliation, on December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S. immediately responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. President Roosevelt, responding to the shock and anger of the American people described the attack on Pearl Harbor and the date December 7, 1941 as:

A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY

But, we were not ready. We were not ready for war. Our homeland was not safe. Our military intelligence was inadequate. We failed to detect and identify six large Japanese aircraft carriers and the battleships and cruisers which protected them only miles from our shores. WE WERE NOT READY. Thankfully, that fateful day, several of our Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier were out at sea on maneuvers and escaped the attack. If those carriers had been in port, the destruction would have been complete. As it was, we were not ready.

I wonder if we are ready today. Lessons from history not learned are doomed to be repeated. It is virtually impossible for the U.S. or almost any other country for that matter to be attacked by land or sea without considerable advance notice and warning. But in the air, from the skies, that is a different story. Intercontinental nuclear ballistic missiles can destroy cities and millions in the twinkling of an eye. There is Russia, and China, and North Korea and soon Iran, all of which will have that capability if we are not ready. We were not ready then, December 7, 1941. Are we ready today?

December 7, 1941 saw an all-out attack on an American Naval Port in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by a foreign, war-mongering nation, Japan. But then came something different although every bit as infamous:

THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS ON OUR BELOVED NEW YORK CITY

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the brutal and savage Islamic Terrorist group al-Qaeda mounted a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks on the United States. Four passenger airlines operated by two major U.S. passenger air carriers, namely United and American Airlines were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were crashed into the North and South towers respectively of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. In just one hour and 42 minutes from the crashes, both 110 story towers collapsed. The debris and the resulting fires caused the partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47 story seven World Trade Center tower. Significant damage was done to 10 other large surrounding structures. These brutal terrorist attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 others. 3,600 Americans and its citizens were killed in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Over 9,000 people were killed or wounded in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. If we the people were angered and shocked by the Pearl Harbor attack, we were even more so angered and shocked by the wanton and barbaric attack on New York City that fateful Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

But there was a third plane which was hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists. Five terrorist hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into our very own Pentagon at 9:37 AM that Tuesday morning. Those hijackers stabbed and killed the pilots of the plane, and the flight attendants, and even one or more passengers. These terrorist hijackers did so with multi-function hand tools, utility knives with locking blades which astonishingly were not forbidden to passengers at the time and on this airplane and those two planes which crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the terrorists used mace, teargas or pepper spray to overcome the attendance and any resistance from passengers. The carnage was horrendous. The Pentagon, the Headquarters of the United States Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia saw severe destruction and damage and the collapse of the Western side of the headquarters. We were not ready. It seemed inconceivable that such attacks could occur in America and on our very own soil. But they did, and we were not ready.

And there was a fourth airplane, United Airlines Flight 93, hijacked and headed toward Washington, D.C. Its gruesome destination was the destruction of the White House or the Capitol building. Brave Americans, passengers on this fateful flight, banded together to take control of the plane and were rallied to action by the clarion call:

LET’S ROLL

The plane never reached its destination in Washington, D.C. and was crashed by the hijackers or the passengers in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where all of the passengers, the brave commandos and the hijackers were killed. Those brave Americans knew that we the people were not ready for such an attack. So they, men and women of extreme courage, rose up, knowing they would die one way or another, and engaged in combat with those five vicious terrorists onboard. Those incredibly brave men and women prevented either the White House or the Capitol building from being totally destroyed. They were ready when the call came. But, once again, today:

ARE WE READY?

Are we?

Almost immediately, American intelligence knew the attacks were organized, planned and implemented by al-Qaeda. The United States responded with the war on terror as authorized by President George W. Bush and invaded Afghanistan, a nation which had harbored al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Many countries the world over strengthened their anti-terrorism capability and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligent agencies for the purpose of preventing terrorist attacks. In America, we saw the rise of our very own HOMELAND SECURITY which exists even today as a preventive force. It seemed as though the world had changed, and certainly the warfare methods and tactics of evil men. Only a few could accomplish such vast destruction where before, it took nations and armies to kill and destroy. Warfare would never be the same.

The U.S. set its sights on al-Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, the one American intelligence believed responsible for these shocking attacks. Bin Laden initially denied any involvement in 2001. But, in 2004, bin Laden proudly claimed responsibility for the attacks. Bin Laden knew WE WERE NOT READY. America was attacked, this cruel, savage leader proclaimed because the United States supported Israel. The avowed enemy of al-Qaeda and Islamist terrorists. Bin Laden took out his revenge on America as well because of the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and U.S. sanctions against Iraq and Saddam Hussein. These brutal attacks on American soil by air were as a result of an al-Qaeda declaration of war, a terrorist declaration of war against the America which bin Laden called:

THE GREAT SATAN

We were not ready and he knew it. The carnage was disastrous.


This evil man, Osama bin Laden, avoided capture or even detection of whereabouts for almost one decade. Then, in 2011, bin Laden was in fact located and in May, 2011, the Navy sent
SEAL TEAM SIX, compromised of some of the bravest and most aggressive fighters in the military, to Pakistan where Obama was living in hiding. The team attacked his home and headquarters, identified him and killed him. It was justice done, but perhaps justice too little, too late. We were ready then. When we the people of this great country are ready, we are ready for anything. And that was the end of bin Laden.

On November 18, 2006, construction of the new World Trade Center, ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER began. The construction took 8.5 years but finally, on November 3, 2014, this brand new building, this monument to American achievement, and to the horrific 9/11 attacks of 2001 was officially opened. It stands today as a magnificent structure but as well, a reminder of the brutal attacks on the old World Trade Center, and of the cruelty and evil of al-Qaeda, and the demonic machinations of the equally evil Osama bin Laden. We can only hope and pray that we are ready, ready to protect and defend this great city, our New York and surely the new One World Trade Center.

War and warfare are evil. There is no winner in war, none at all. Losers suffer more, but even the winners sustain losses, human and material, which are themselves disastrous. Innocent men and women are killed. Witness the killing fields of Syria where ISIS and the Assad regime in Syria kill with impunity. Tens of thousands of people are dislocated, never to return home. There really are no real winners in war.

But, as the Scriptures so well state, in the End Times, there will be wars and rumors of wars, EVERYWHERE. War today, whether large or small, whether declared or terroristic, goes on and is ready to appear at any time. There is always the threat of war. Russia threatens and retakes the Ukraine. Iran sponsors al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas, essentially taking over Lebanon and attacking or ready to attack the hated Israel at any time. North Korea threatens South Korea, and even our very own United States. The evil threat of ISIS no matter how well destroyed goes on. Warmongering Arab states like Yemen foster terrorism, ready to attack even Arab neighbors if necessary should they side with the West. War can breakout at anytime, anywhere.

But the next war, the third World War, when it comes will be different, far different. This war will be fought on the ground in so many ways by terrorists, small groups of vicious fighters using guerilla, hit-and-run destructive warfare tactics on smaller levels. But the real warfare will become nuclear, and the third World War will result, so many think in the killing of literally billions of human beings as the incredibly destructive nuclear bombs explode. Whole cities will be wiped out. Millions will be killed in the twinkling of an eye. Those nuclear explosives will arrive at their destination from intercontinental ballistic missiles, so difficult to defend. Especially in America for in so many ways, WE ARE NOT READY! We are far too busy worrying about transgender bathrooms rather than terrorist attacks. We are so thoroughly engaged with the Gay Agenda that we have inadequate missile defense. Our military in so many ways prioritizes all things politically correct and of course anti-Christian rather than training and preparing for what will inevitably be attacks, direct attacks upon America. And, so many state my fellow Americans, WE ARE NOT READY for the warfare sure to come.

President Trump intends the revitalization of the United States military and all its forces, and its capability. Trump and our military with new leadership know that WE ARE NOT READY. They know we are behind in investment, training, planning and capability for the new warfare. They are determined to change that, and unless they do, so much of our beloved country can be potentially destroyed and we the people with it. No one wants war, no one. That is, no sane human being wants war. But we are told there are so-called just wars, wars of defense and protection which we must fight. Many think, like it or not, that we the people, we the peace lovers and givers, will eventually fight in such a war, and even on our very own soil. I for one do hope and pray they are wrong. But I, with millions of others, believe that America is not ready and we must prepare as never before for warfare as never before. For the sake of our families, our loved ones, and all Americans, we have no choice. We are not now ready, but we must be.

Again, my fellow Americans:

WE HAVE NO CHOICE!

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