[femmedelicieux]

(Heto nanaman si Aga) Sam, ang Amerika, kahit na utang na nya ang buhay ng kanyang mga mamamayan sa China kung gagawa ng tunay na kamalian ang China na makaka apekto sa kapayapaan ng buong mundo, lalabanan niya yang mga yan.

It should, or the lessons of Pearl Harbor have not been well-learned. Let me quote the following from my paperback:

"Wilson's proposals were initially greeted with enthusiasm in the United States and around the world. The U.S. Senate, however, was less impressed. Republican Senate Leader Henry Cabot Lodge considered the League of Nations--and the very concept of international law--as an encroachment on American sovereignty, a foolish constraint on American's ability to impose its will around the world. Aided by traditional isolationists in both parties (many of whom had opposed American entry into World War I), as well as Wilson's stubborn unwillingness to compromise, the Senate refused to ratify U.S. membership in the League.

"For the next twenty years, America turned resolutely inward--reducing its army and navy, refusing to join the World Court, standing idly by as Italy, Japan, and Nazi Germany built up their military machines. The Senate became a hotbed of isolationism, passing a Neutrality Act that prevented the United States from lending assistance to countries invaded by the Axis powers, and repeatedly ignoring the President's appeals as Hitler's armies marched across Europe. Not until the bombing of Pearl Harbor would America realize its terrible mistake. 'There is no such thing as security for any nation--or any individual--in a world ruled by the principles of gangsterism,' FDR would say in his national address after the attack. 'We cannot measure our safety in terms of miles on any map anymore.'"

--Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, Chapter 8: The World Beyond Our Borders