It is very possible that new generations may not remember or perhaps have never heard what December 7, 1941 represents for citizens before them, “The day that will live in infamy”, according to President Franklin D. Roosevelt before the US Senate, seventy-eight years ago.
We refer to the surprise and devastating air raid, launched against the naval base of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, home of the Pacific fleet by forces of the Japanese Empire. When the attack ended, the casualties on the US side were 2,403 dead and 1,178 injured in action, in addition to a long list of ships totally lost and/or damaged, as well as a large number of aircrafts.
It was not an attack on North America, since Hawaii was a territory of the United States although not a member state of the union at that time, but it caused the United States to declare war on Japan, after that passionate speech before the Senate.
On September 11, 2001, another day it will live in ignominy, this time the continental United States was attacked in a series of suicide attacks against the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington by al-Qaeda members with the result of the loss of almost 3,000 civilians.
The United States responded with an open war against terrorism. The difference between the two attacks is that the first one came from a country that was easy to identify and destroy, although at a high cost.
Terrorists are everywhere. They have attacked us Yemen, Africa, Spain, India, and may be considering another attack here even though many of their leaders have been eliminated in Afghanistan, including their top leader Osama bin Laden, who was taken out of circulation by an operative from US Navy SEALs and the CIA carried out at their residence in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Our regards and respect goes to those who seventy-eight years ago gave everything defending our principles and ideology and also more recently, to those who entered the burning towers, when everyone was trying to get out.
For their sacrifice and for what they have done for humanity, we must not forget them.
