Remember what victory means?

By Thomas Lifson

Sixty-four years ago today, Japan's Showa Emperor (Hirohito) took to the radio for the first time ever to announce to his countrymen that Japan was going to surrender to the Allies. The formerly unthinkable option of capitulation became real for Japan only after the prospect of total annihilation via atomic bombing was brought home twice. As a result, millions of lives were saved in Japan, because until the Emperor spoke, the plan was to fight to the last man, woman and child.

Six and a half decades later, Japan is a peaceful, technologically advanced, culturally secure member of the family of nations, dominated by a huge middle class.

That steely will to victory of the previous mid-century now has been replaced with the following:

President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but "victory" in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.

How, I wonder, are families of Soldiers and Marines who give their lives in defense of our country in Afghanistan supposed to deal with the president's mealy-mouthed equivocation? How will the purportedly smartest man ever to occupy the White House explain to families what their children died for?

President Brilliant H. Obama's command of history is a bit hazy when it comes to concepts like American victory. He went on to say:

I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.

This is appalling ignorance. The Emperor did announce surrender, but he didn't sign it. One must wonder what kind of courses Obama took in college. We don't know because he refuses to release his transcripts. But if you trust the MSM, maybe you still think he is a towering intellect.