By Debbie Schlussel

Seventy-one years ago today, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. 2,459 U.S. military personnel and other Americans were killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 1,178 American servicemen were wounded. 12 ships were sunk or beached, 9 damaged. We lost 164 aircraft to total destruction, and 159 others were damaged.

Until then, America hadn’t really entered World War II. They attacked us. Just like all the many attacks in which the replacement “they”–Islamic terrorists and the vast majority of the Islamic world that cheers them on–have attacked us, and not just on 9/11/01, but well before and after. On 9/11, President Bush wrote in his diary, “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.” But he did not fight the enemy the way American did post-Pearl Harbor. Instead, he embraced the enemy and set the table for other Republicans and Democrats like Barack Obama to do the same. That’s just one of the many reasons why it’s so important to remember the attack on Pearl Harbor. And not just to remember it, but to never forget that, today, we have a larger enemy that has been attacking us for decades, and we’ve looked the other way. That enemy also got us to voluntarily sacrifice thousands of American men to hand Iraq from one group of them to the other and to sacrifice thousands of American men to build roads and hand out candy to those that hate us far worse than those who bombed Pearl Harbor.

With only about a couple thousand survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack still alive, there will probably only be several handfuls alive for the 75th anniversary, as most survivors are now in their late 80s and early-to-mid-90s. At the time of the attack, there were 60,000 U.S. military personnel serving in the area and the surrounding South Pacific. And since there are fewer and fewer remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, Pearl Harbor Day is quickly receding into history, barely a memory. And, most important, we’ve already forgotten their resolve to fight back. Today, we just bend over or pay more attention to what the Kardashians are wearing and whom they are dating. Priorities.

Whereas yesterday they fought back against the Japanese and America entered and won World War II, today, we have a silent attack–with Muslims entering our shores and multiplying, and with us doing nothing to stop it because, hey, I gotta watch Honey Boo Boo tonight! Today, we are fighting–or, rather, capitulating, to the new version of those allied with the Japanese–-the new Nazis (who were allied with and part of the original Nazis). They are far more committed, far more dangerous, and much more difficult to defeat. They don’t just bomb ships and planes and military. They torture and murder innocent civilians. And they invade silently, through immigration, multiple births, politics, and pop culture–all of which can’t be bombed into oblivion like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Instead, we allow it.

Yes, sadly, on our end, we’ve lost the fortitude and bravery to fight back. We’ve surrendered our shores through immigration and open borders to the enemy. And instead of fighting back, our institutions and culture have bent over forward and backward for this enemy in our midst. Appeasement is the name of the game, something we’d never have done back then. Never.

As I’ve said before, yesterday we responded to the Japanese who attacked us and their allies, the Nazis. Today, we attack our own and enable the new, reconstituted Nazis descending from the Grand Mufti and his ilk.

G-d Bless all the brave men who died 71 years ago today. Let’s make sure their deaths continue to mean something, not just some empty slogans or brief media coverage. Let’s make sure that we never forget, but also that we connect the dots and fight back against Islam’s silent Pearl Harbor Times A Million on our shores, which succeeds without sending a single explosive device to Hawaii and which was rewarded for the mass murder of 3,000 Americans and other would-be and successful mass murders on our shores, like Fort Hood, Times Square, and Shoe and Underwear.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Pearl Harbor survivor Paul Meeker marked his 94th birthday. He served in the U.S. Army during that fateful day, after having enlisted in 1938.

“We heard an explosion, and we thought it was an earthquake,” Meeker said, noting that the Pacific “Ring of Fire” was used to such seismic activity. “One soldier, he said, ‘That’s a bomb. We’re being attacked!’ I went out and saw dozens of airplanes with rising suns on the wings.”

Although some historians have suggested the United States had some warning an attack was imminent, Meeker said the men on the ground were absolutely stunned.

“It was like if you pulled a gun out and shot me right now,” he said. “There was no hint of anything going on.”

And, today, despite several attacks on American soil by Muslims, including one last week by Abdullatif Ali Aldosary, most Americans aren’t stunned. Instead, they are too busy at the mall or playing “Call of Duty,” without heeding a real life call of duty to wake up to what is happening to our country.

Meeker and the other grunts ran and got their rifles from the supply room. While some soldiers manned machine guns and got some rounds off at the planes, Meeker said they could do little with small arms.

“We were only trying to save our lives, because bombs were falling all over the place,” Meeker said, sitting in the living room of his comfortable Malvern Hills home.

One of the more bizarre memories Meeker has is finding a postcard in the supply room, quickly scribbling a note to his mother — “I am alright. Love, Paul” — and putting it in a mailbox, all in the middle of the attack. She got the postcard about three weeks later, joyous that he was alive.

Yet on that Sunday, no one was celebrating but the Japanese.

Three days after the attack, some of the damaged ships in Pearl Harbor were still smoking. Meeker and other troops worked non-stop for three weeks to get back to some sense of normalcy, convinced the Japanese would follow up. But no invasion ensued, and gradually they restored Pearl Harbor.

In 1943, Meeker, by then promoted to technical sergeant, developed ulcers, which at the time had limited treatment options. The Army sent him back to the states with an honorable discharge . On his way to Savannah, he stopped by Asheville to thank his Aunt Ethel, who had been particularly kind to him during the war. Next-door lived a young lady Meeker describes as “the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen,” Edna Webb. Three months later, on July 18, 1943, they married. They’re still together today. . . .

Today, he says, Americans should pause and think about those who secured the democracy we take for granted.

“It was a ‘day of infamy,’ and a lot of good people lost their lives fighting for their country,” Meeker said, referring to Franklin Roosevelt’s famous speech the day after the attack. “There wasn’t a slack person I knew of. Everybody gave it all they had.”

Spot on, Americans should pause, but most won’t. It’s just another day at the office or shopping for gifts. We are now a nation of slackers who just don’t care.

It’s sad. But it’s a fact. We are losing the Silent Pearl Harbor attack of a thousand cuts because we are still fast asleep. Rip Van Winkle ain’t got nothin’ on us.

***

From my 2005 coverage of Pearl Harbor Day, don’t forget these words from the Memorial:

My brothers lie in state,
In clear waters
Of testimony, their willingness
To answer our Nation’s call.
An angel bends down, whispers in my ear,
Never forget. Never forget.
Honor them. They
Gave their lives for you.
No man hath a greater love.
Do them honor.
And never forget.

Never forget Pearl Harbor. And never forget that we are facing an enemy far more fierce, an enemy that is slowly defeating us.