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Historically, a lot of military action is preemptive.

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was a preemptive move in their eyes.

Imagine how Americans would feel if Russia established a huge military base halfway between Russia and America in the middle of the ocean somewhere. Now imagine that nuclear weapons don't exist.

In that scenario, a preemptive strike might start to make sense to a lot of people in America.

That's pretty much how Japan felt about Hawaii before Pearl Harbor.

I'm not justifying Japan's attack. It was a horrible tragedy. But it's totally understandable, if not laudable.



A huge military base... you mean like Cuba during the cold war?


Yes, and Cuba's certainly a heck of a lot closer to America than halfway.

If not for the threat of nuclear war, I'm sure we would have attacked Cuba. It very nearly happened anyway.

(Of course, without the existence of nuclear weapons, the USSR never would have even attempted that move in the first place)




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