Infamy

December 7, 1941...

Take five minutes or so and revisit the infamously famous speech by Roosevelt, detailing the sudden change of American life. The initial few phrases of the speech are now quite familiar, but take note of several aspects further along. Notice what happened beyond just the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan initiated a broad offensive, that in today's context could be considered a form of swarming the operational environment - overwhelming the adversary with decisions from many directions.  We offered a glancing reference to the swarm phenomenon as Antoine Bousquet described it in the chaoplexic way of warfare. This raises the question, how would we deal with forms of swarming today, specifically with terrorism? The context of 1941 provides some lessons. Here are two references to remember that date and to remember that our nation has dealt with tremendous threats to our national security

Audio excerpt of Roosevelt's speech
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5166

Roosevelt's annotated first draft
http://education.nationalgeographic.org/media/roosevelts-day-infamy-speech/