In this Dec. 7, 1941 photo provided by the U.S. Navy, sailors on a small boat rescue a USS West Virginia crew member from the water after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (AP Photo – U.S. Navy)

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Yes, every year there are commemorations of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. We honor those who are still alive from that historic day. Ceremonies occur in many parts of the United States.

The real impact was not just America’s entry into WWII. The bombing of Pearl Harbor changed America’s attitude about the rest of the world and its place in the world. The United States surrendered its non-intervention policy (isolationism) that had survived since its inception to a position of leadership in world affairs that exists to this day.

President George Washington, in his farewell address, advised the nation to have “little political connection as possible.” This recommendation was followed up in 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine and reaffirmed in the Polk Doctrine, announced on 2 December 1845.  http://www.answers.com/topic/nonintervention-policy#ixzz2ER92HSBw

 William Seward, Secretary of State under President Lincoln wrote a letter to one William Dayton in 1863 defining The American Doctrine of Non-intervention in which I quote, “Our policy of non-intervention, straight, absolute, and peculiar as it may seem to other nations, has thus become a traditional one, which could not be abandoned without the most urgent occasion, amounting to a manifest necessity.”

 Even after WWI the United States returned to its non-intervention policy when it refused to join the League of Nations (an organization similar to the United Nations).

Since WWII there has been the Korean War, Vietnam War, America’s total support for Israel, America’s intervention in Lebanon (241 marines killed), Kuwait (first Gulf War), Iraq War, Afghanistan.

The U.S. has 737 bases around the world, of which 295 are considered “major military bases,” and has military personnel in 153 countries. Since the middle of the twentieth century the American State has intervened hundreds of times in the affairs of other countries, overthrowing elected leaders and invading sovereign countries. http://tfboyle.hubpages.com/hub/Non-Intervention-A-Foreign-Policy-for-the-American-Citizen

Here we go again! Today the United States is considering involvement in Syria because there is an indication that their government may be planning to use sarin gas. “What you should know about sarin gas, the chemical weapon believed to be in the Syrian regime’s possession.” This is part of an article in the Global Post.

 Is it Manifest Destiny or are we Americans just too sympathetic to not aid and abet our fellow man?