<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Daniel Mandel</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/author/daniel-mandel/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:56:08 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>Obama&#8217;s Dance With Radical Islam</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/daniel-mandel/obamas-dance-with-radical-islam/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obamas-dance-with-radical-islam</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/daniel-mandel/obamas-dance-with-radical-islam/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2014 04:34:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Mandel]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ally]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=235356</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The defining feature of the administration's Mideast policy. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/obama-grasp.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-235437" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/obama-grasp-450x337.jpg" alt="obama-grasp" width="299" height="224" /></a>Last month, President Barack Obama chose to support and fund a Palestinian Authority (PA) government that includes Hamas, a U.S. and EU-designated terrorist group that calls in its charter for the destruction of Israel (Article 15) and the murder of Jews (Article 7). Also last month, Obama freed five senior Taliban terrorist commanders in exchange for an American serviceman who may have been a deserter.</p>
<p>Obama could have cut funding to the PA, which would have made sense strategically, and could have supported a close, long-standing American ally, Israel. He could have refused any exchange of senior Taliban leaders. Why didn’t he?</p>
<p>Because he supports engagement with radical Islam – not merely moderate Muslims, Arab liberals, or secular reformers. Al-Qaeda notwithstanding, Obama believes radical Muslims are potential allies and friends. This is confirmed by his decisions at every important point in his presidency.</p>
<p>Thus, when Obama addressed the Muslim world in Cairo in June 2009, he insisted on inviting members of the parliamentary bloc of the (then-banned) radical Muslim Brotherhood over the objections of U.S. ally, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak – though the Obama administration later <a href="http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/obamas-muslim-brotherhood-links/">denied</a> that it did so. (A furious Mubarak refused to attend.)</p>
<p>It was no secret that numerous surveys had shown before 2011 that large majorities of Egyptians favor discriminatory <em>sharia</em>, the death penalty for apostates and so on – meaning that it was almost certain that radical Muslims would triumph in elections. Yet, when a groundswell of opposition to Mubarak’s rule arose in February 2011, Obama <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/02/01/president-obama-transition-egypt%23transcript%23transcript">called</a> for Mubarak to step down “now” while his spokesman <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/31/press-briefing-press-secretary-robert-gibbs-1312011">called</a> for early elections involving “non-secular actors.”</p>
<p>When the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi was, unsurprisingly, elected president, Obama did not discontinue arming the regime, even though its future policies were as yet entirely unknown. Yet, when in July 2013, Morsi was ousted by the Egyptian military under Field Marshal Abdul el-Sisi, Obama <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/09/obama-cuts-military-aid-egypt">suspended</a> military aid.</p>
<p>The Iranian regime is one whose leaders have called for the destruction of both America and <a href="http://jcpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IransIntent2012b.pdf">Israel</a>. Tehran has been developing a nuclear weapons capacity that would give it the means to act on these designs. Yet, Obama has not sought to undermine or replace the regime. In 2009, when Iranians were brutalized on Tehran’s streets for protesting the rigged re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Obama did not call for Ahmadinejad to step down – he pointedly <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-President-Obama-and-President-Lee-of-the-Republic-of-Korea-in-Joint-Press-Availability/">refused</a> to get involved, saying “it&#8217;s not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling.”</p>
<p>For over a year upon becoming President, Obama prevented any new congressional sanctions on Iran coming to a vote. He subsequently <a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/06/administration_tries_to_water_down_iran_sanctions_legislation">diluted and delayed</a> those that in the end passed. The 2010 UN Security Council sanctions Obama did support did not cover Iran’s vital oil, financial, and insurance sectors, and included huge exemptions for numerous countries like China, which has huge contracts in Iran’s energy sector developing oil refineries, and Russia, which supplies S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran.</p>
<p>Then, in 2013, having at least tightened UN sanctions, Obama agreed to immediately undo them, granting Iran some <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.562824">$20 billion in sanctions relief</a> (not merely $6-7 billion, as the Administration initially claimed) under the terms of the Geneva interim agreement. That agreement permitted Iran to retain intact all the essential elements of its nuclear weapons program – its Arak plutonium plant; continued uranium enrichment; intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs, even retention of its enriched uranium stocks. (Iran was simply required to reduce them to an oxide which can be restored in weeks to weapons-grade uranium.)</p>
<p>The conclusion is clear: Obama, contrary to his oft-repeated promise to do “everything, everything” to prevent Iran going nuclear, is willing to let Tehran become the next nuclear power. That’s why in July 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-slams-clinton-statement-on-nuclear-iran-1.280505">said</a> that the U.S. would extend a “missile shield” over the Middle East if that occurred. It also explains why Obama in 2013 nominated as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, an outspoken opponent of stopping Iran by military or even economic means.</p>
<p>In Syria, Obama is arming the opposition to Bashar Assad’s Baathist regime. It might indeed be welcome if Assad fell, but some 80% of the forces fighting him are Islamists, including al-Qaeda. Where will that leave Syria and the region should Islamists succeed in replacing Assad?</p>
<p>Turkey long ceased to be a close U.S. ally. In June 2010, it opposed U.S-supported UN sanctions on Iran. In 2012, it excluded Israel from two counter-terrorism conferences in Istanbul, and Madrid. Its Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called Israel a “terrorist state” and Zionism “a crime against humanity.” He has also a record of <a href="http://zoa.org/2013/03/10192622-erdogan-a-vitriolic-anti-semite-who-is-not-as-pleasant-as-he-sounds/">anti-Semitism</a> that goes back to the 1970s. Yet, by Obama’s own admission, Erdogan is <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-269076-obama-names-turkeys-erdogan-among-top-five-international-friends.html">one of Obama’s closest friends</a> among foreign leaders.</p>
<p>Now, having chosen not to penalize Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah/Palestinian Authority for forming a unity regime with Hamas, a package of $440 million in U.S. aid to the PA is set to proceed, even though we now know that Hamas members kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers.</p>
<p>The record shows that Obama favors accommodation with radical Islam, their regimes and their leaders. He has less interest in traditional U.S. allies and is willing to pick fights with them or abandon them.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, </strong><em><strong>The Glazov Gang</strong></em><strong>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/daniel-mandel/obamas-dance-with-radical-islam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Writing on the Wall for Egyptian/Israeli Peace</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/writing-on-the-wall-for-egyptianisraeli-peace/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=writing-on-the-wall-for-egyptianisraeli-peace</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/writing-on-the-wall-for-egyptianisraeli-peace/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Mandel]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Peace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=140660</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How long before the other shoe drops? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/610x110.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-140662" title="610x110" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/610x110.gif" alt="" width="375" height="249" /></a>Last week, a group of terrorists in Sinai killed 16 Egyptian soldiers before launching a failed attack into Israel. And a few days later, the new Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/50239.aspx">removed</a> the chief of the armed forces and defense minister, Mohammed Tantawi, along with the army, navy and air force service heads. On the same day, he also cancelled the constitutional addendum restricting presidential powers that Tantawi and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had imposed last June. These events tell us much about what lies ahead.</p>
<p>Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate who won presidential elections, has full executive and legislative authority. He can convene a new constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, without the oversight of the military establishment that has ruled Egypt for six decades.</p>
<p>This means an Islamist constitution. The Brotherhood,  the “the mother of all Islamist movements” as Shadi Hamid, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center, <a href="http://www.cfr.org/africa/egypts-muslim-brotherhood/p23991?cid=ppc-Google-Muslim_Brotherhood&amp;gclid=CKLb08Ci3qkCFQ495QodIix9Zg">puts it</a>, an Islamist organization dating back to 1928, whose leading ideologues, notably Sayyid Qutb, were the precursor of al-Qaeda, will create an Islamist order in Egypt.</p>
<p>The Brotherhood is vehemently anti-American, so expect a slow demise in the alliance into which America poured $60 billion over three decades. Its leader, Muhammad Badi’ said in October 2010 that, “The U.S. is now experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading towards its demise.”</p>
<p>The Brotherhood is also virulently opposed to Israel’s existence and calls for the rescission of the Egyptian/Israeli peace treaty. Its deputy leader, Rashad al-Bayoumi has <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0015jSwVmPPe9NOQZDMYmeVnE0HdleJRxZTPXrxwi4iECV9oW0JbXkmcCGgS2w214eNGKeDD3-rrWnzmCM0GOlm-5VotaEIA-KlihVvUlENAJIh_bTnISIKsbCGKc-MQZAI0ui4rnSDwVEjANqcEN5-mQgb8aYH8-cy6R1zrwjGOLWHohO4N8F9xnNbxGFfnh_qfO42V52IksedqqMFPUoSYX2kTn6ODpM7wpBngMGud6OCEFhi15Xo463DWho5yaVn7lKm1vubZQqzjIry4FvLhxkGfQ5Ux7IiQaV-uWgVkjS1hCnr61eB83iLjjI-jtvo9mQ6INDlJI8jVLAp8NK_W53irdUOKdEfcj0y3rFVpsZg7roVWOShwWEqn3424R4B5MjJOouejQ55WSxnTnVpIiT1Bs2IuvPp4bt2xGwbFn-i61C63NK0xR1OxDMeIuM4VQEXEjhySXAzOL79Fdokzz6oA-h7AXHJKcQDDTHtXFkcyy6Jn5n6N0ezA-RFOLe58qBKeVqB_bnwbNeVzUT5TtnR34n0VbZOndkCEY-RXNUF2QH36gXWD6_hiGm013Uq">described</a> Israel as “enemy entity” and asserted that the existing peace treaty “isn’t binding at all.”  Expect Israeli/Egyptian relations &#8211; frosty at the best of times &#8211; to petrify.</p>
<p>Morsi no longer speaks for the Brotherhood &#8211; he resigned on becoming president &#8211; but he needn’t: it speaks for itself. And its reaction to the recent terrorist attack, which the Israelis narrowly averted, was to <a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/islamists-claim-israel-behind-sinai-attack">blame</a> it on the Israeli intelligence service “Mossad, which has been seeking to abort the Egyptian revolution.” Hamas, the Palestinian off-shoot of the Brotherhood which controls Gaza and calls in its Charter for the worldwide murder of Jews, took the same line. Its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, <a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/gaza-pm-calls-permanent-palestinian-egyptian-security-committee">stated</a>, “The crime itself and what preceded it confirms Israel’s involvement in one way or another.”</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/writing-on-the-wall-for-egyptianisraeli-peace/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>70 Years Since We Won the Battle of Midway</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/70-years-since-we-won-the-battle-of-midway/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=70-years-since-we-won-the-battle-of-midway</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/70-years-since-we-won-the-battle-of-midway/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2012 04:03:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Mandel]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=134186</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Remembering profound American courage and resourcefulness. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Battle_of_Midway.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-134213" title="Battle_of_Midway" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Battle_of_Midway.gif" alt="" width="375" height="248" /></a>It was this week, seventy years go, that the battle of Midway &#8211; by common consent, one of the three most decisive battles of the Second World War &#8211; took place.</p>
<p>A great deal rode on this battle, shaped so profoundly by resourcefulness, ingenuity, sacrificial bravery, chance and unexpected turns of fate such that the battle&#8217;s outcome might have been diametrically opposite.</p>
<p>Fought over three days, Midway’s decisive moment actually encompassed a mere few minutes in which the fortunes of Imperial Japan and the United States it had assaulted six months earlier at Pearl Harbor were reversed. The all-conquering Japanese, who in those six months had swept through south-east Asia and the western Pacific like a juggernaut, were spectacularly brought to heel. From that day on, the path ahead would be horrific and tortuous, but Japan’s defeat was assured.</p>
<p>Why assured? The Japanese ambition to knock the U.S. out of the Pacific and establish a “Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” &#8211; a Japanese empire free of Western influence &#8211; always partook of lunacy: the massive industrial might of the U.S. and its ability to husband enormous resources should have foretold Prime Minister Hideki Tojo’s regime that, no matter how stunning and destructive the first, Samurai-like blow inflicted on the Americans, the U.S. would in time recover and overwhelm it with outraged and righteous might. Yet, the awareness in Tokyo of American might (Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, had spent years in America and seen with his own eyes the dreaded portent of Japan’s fate contained in the gigantic factories of Detroit) only gave the spur to exaggerated Japanese reliance on knock-out blows. And the great intended knock-out blow at Pearl Harbor &#8211; which did indeed eliminate for a time the U.S. Navy’s arsenal of battleships &#8211; fatefully missed the most important targets of all: the three American aircraft carriers in the Pacific at the time: <em>Enterprise</em>, <em>Lexington</em> and <em>Saratoga</em>. All three were at sea when Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s <em>Kido Butai</em>, the 1st Carrier Fleet, a strike force of six carriers &#8211; the <em>Akagi</em>, <em>Kaga</em>, <em>Hiryu</em>, <em>Soryu</em>, <em>Shokaku </em>and <em>Zuikaku</em> &#8211; unleashed their destructive power on December 7, 1941.</p>
<p>The Imperial Japanese Navy possessed a fleet of ten carriers (as against Britain’s eight and the U.S.’s seven), wielding an armada of the best carrier-based aircraft: Zero fighters, Val dive-bombers and Kate torpedo bombers, the latter also adaptable to level attack bombing. They had also unmatched experience and an unbroken string of victories which continued to grow after Pearl Harbor. Only at the Coral Sea, during May 4-8, 1942, were the Japanese checked when the U.S. carriers <em>Lexington</em> and <em>Yorktown</em> harried the Japanese invasion force heading for New Guinea’s Port Moresby, sinking the light carrier <em>Shoho</em> and damaging the <em>Shokaku</em>. The Japanese recalled the invasion force and the Americans registered their first strategic victory in the Pacific. But the victory was not a tactical one: the U.S. had suffered more in the fight, losing the <em>Lexington</em>, while the <em>Yorktown</em>, flagship of Rear-Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, suffered extensive damage. It limped back across the Pacific to Pearl Harbor, steaming into port on May 27, 1942, requiring an estimated three months’ repair job.</p>
<p>But by then, a major Japanese attack was imminent. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, had the advantage of a first-rate team of decoders, led by Joseph J. Rochefort, who had broken the Japanese naval cipher. They thus ascertained that a Japanese attack was scheduled for June 4. The only outstanding question was the scene of the intended assault: the Japanese were using a special letter code to identify place names, and the letters &#8220;AF,&#8221; denoting the scene of the intended attack, meant nothing to them. Rochefort devised a stratagem to identify AF. Logic dictated that the Japanese seize Midway, a 2.4 square mile atoll in mid-ocean, a vital American air field and refueling point whose capture would endanger the Hawaiian islands. So a false message was duly transmitted from Midway that its water distillation system was malfunctioning, depriving the atoll of vital water. The Japanese took the bait, in turn transmitting in the code Rochefort and his team could read that that &#8220;AF&#8221; lacked water.</p>
<p>After that, the Americans enjoyed the massive advantage of knowing the time and place of Nagumo’s assault. For that reason, diversionary Japanese feints &#8211; like an assault on Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska &#8211; did not distract the Americans. To that, the Americans added several advantages while the Japanese handicapped themselves. At Pearl Harbor, the <em>Yorktown</em> was repaired and returned to service, not in three months, but in three days, using 1,200 technicians around the clock, many still on board when Fletcher’s Task Force 17 set out to find the Japanese on May 30. No more timely and vital repair job was performed in the war.</p>
<p>In contrast, the Japanese went into battle without the <em>Shokaku, </em>which, like the <em>Yorktown</em>, required extensive repairs, and the <em>Zuikaku</em>, whose air group had been depleted at the Coral Sea. Perversely, the Japanese had ceased production of their Kate torpedo bombers and reduced production of their Val dive bombers just when both were needed most. In contrast, the Americans were working feverishly to mass produce aircraft of all types, including new models to replace aging carrier aircraft. The new Avenger torpedo bombers destined for their carriers arrived at Pearl Harbor one day after the carriers had sailed, meaning that the fateful attack of American torpedo bombers on Nagumo’s fleet were carried out by the slow, obsolete Devastators. But unlike the Japanese, the American ships had a full complement of aircraft.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/70-years-since-we-won-the-battle-of-midway/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>70 Years Since Doolittle Raid on Tokyo</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/70-years-since-doolittle-raid-on-tokyo/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=70-years-since-doolittle-raid-on-tokyo</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/70-years-since-doolittle-raid-on-tokyo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:04:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Mandel]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[70 years]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[doolittle raid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pacific war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tokyo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=129270</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In a day, the notion that Japan was invulnerable to attack was dissolved. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>
<div>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/dr.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-129276" title="James Doolittle, Jimmy Doolittle, Marc A. Mitscher" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/dr.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="293" /></a><span>On this day seventy years ago (April 18, 1942), America’s already famous pioneer aviator and air force Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Doolittle (1896-1993) led the intrepid and celebrated first U.S. air raid on Tokyo. The raid, carried out by 80 airman and 16 specially modified B-25 Mitchell bombers launched from the windswept deck of the carrier <em>Hornet</em>, did much to dissipate the darkness and foreboding overhanging the Pacific war. </span></p>
<p><span>In the four and half months since the surprise attack upon U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s aircraft carriers, Japan had enjoyed one success after another: the seizure of Guam; the surrender of Hong Kong and later Singapore; the destruction from the air of the British battleship <em>Prince of Wales</em> and the battle-cruiser <em>Repulse</em>; the further destruction of the British aircraft carrier <em>Hermes</em> and the cruisers <em>Dorsetshire</em> and <em>Cornwall</em> off Ceylon; the invasion of a brace of Pacific islands, including the Philippines and New Guinea, the bombing of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory and so on. Imperial Japan had appeared unstoppable. The Doolittle Raid permitted a different inference.</span></p>
<p><span>In a day, the notion that Japan was invulnerable to attack because of its sudden, far-flung conquests and the long arm of its navy was dissolved. The U.S. Navy had demonstrated that it could penetrate to within range of metropolitan Japan and launch a squadron of medium bombers upon the imperial capital itself. </span></p>
<p><span>The American public were heartened. With the war in the Pacific still raging, MGM produced a faithful, patriotic but non-sensationalized cinematic account of the exploit, based on <em>Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo</em> by the pilot of the seventh B-25 launched, Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson, with Spencer Tracy playing Doolittle and Van Johnson playing Lawson.</span></p>
<p><span>The raid itself was unusual in concept: launching medium bombers off an aircraft carrier never designed to carry them was considered a technical impossibility: carriers could only accommodate smaller fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo bombers of no use to the task envisaged. Modifications in aircraft design, weight and method of take off had to be effected before the operation was pronounced feasible.</span></p>
<p><span>The B-25s were to have been launched about 480 miles west of Japan to carry out the raid before flying on to friendly territory in China but, on the appointed date, the <em>Hornet</em> was sighted by a Japanese patrol boat still 650 miles out, necessitating an early launch of the bombers. Though none of the pilots, including Doolittle, had ever flown a B-25 off a carrier, all sixteen launched safely. All but one found their targets, all but one evaded hits from anti-aircraft fire and all but one flew on as planned to China. The sole exception was the B-25 piloted by Captain  Edward J. York which, low on fuel, headed for ostensibly friendly Soviet territory, where he and his crew were interned for over a year before escaping.</span></p>
<p><span>Operating at such extreme range, none of the planes were able to reach friendly airfields and all crews were forced to parachute. Doolittle himself came down in a rice paddy, preserving an already injured ankle from further injury. Lawson fared less well, crash-landing at Nantien and lacerating his left leg, which later required amputation. Others fared even less well: eight crew members from the sixth and sixteen planes were captured by Japanese forces. Three were executed by firing squad and the remaining five imprisoned, one of them, Robert J. Meder, dying in captivity. Today, one of the four survivors, Robert E. Hite, is among the five living veterans of the Raid to celebrate its 70th anniversary today, as is Doolittle’s own co-pilot, Colonel Richard E. Cole.</span></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-mandel/70-years-since-doolittle-raid-on-tokyo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Object Caching 494/499 objects using disk
Content Delivery Network via cdn.frontpagemag.com

 Served from: www.frontpagemag.com @ 2014-12-31 08:17:57 by W3 Total Cache -->