This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE (12-07-04)

The world has certainly changed from that infamous day 63 years ago on this date.
Those of us who were alive at the time will never forget those moments on a Sunday morning.
I was working at a small radio station in the midwest. I had the Sunday morning shift.....in those days of radio we did not have tape machines...or cd or dvd or whatever. We didn’t have even the early day wire recorders.
The only way we had of retaining any events was by cutting a record....and at the station I worked at....we didn’t even have that capability. When you opened the microphone....it was live...period.
You filled the air....generally signing off at midnight....with spinning 78 rpm records....and live conversation.
At any rate....that fateful Sunday morning I was on duty....we did have a network to fill part of the time....and it was sending us a church service....when the program was interrupted to an excited voice....exclaiming....The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor!
Up to that time....America had not officially been involved in the war in Europe. We had done everything to help the British and French including sending some of our ships in a lend-lease program. Most of us realized that we were gradually sliding toward entering that war...but until the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor....we were not at war.
That changed on that Sunday Morning.
For most of us young men....it meant years of service in many areas of the war.....but in the end....we defeated the axis of Japan, Germany and Italy.
Today......63 years later....we have Japanese troops aiding our effort in Iraq....as well as Italian troops. We consider Japan our best friend in the Pacific.
Today....we are at war again. This time not against an established nation.....but against a terrorist force that recognizes no morals...will use any means to gain their end...including the use of nuclear missles if they could get their hands on them.
Events in Iraq have shown that while Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear weapons....he had biological weapons...and had used them. If he had acquired a nuclear capability....you can bet he would have given it to the terrorists.
The war we’re fighting in Iraq has now become a struggle with innocent Iraqis being killed in large numbers.
It is also costing America the lives of many of our young people,
but in all honesty it is a battle that we cannot afford to lose. To do so would be to turn the world over to the terrorists who would eventually secure nuclear weapons and would surely use them.
Signs are hopeful that perhaps peace can finally be achieved between Israel and Palestine. If that comes to pass....and if true democracy is achieved in Iraq.....a body blow of great magnitude will have been delivered to the terrorist forces.
The devastating attacks that hit us in September 2001.....is the Pearl Harbor of today. It awakened us from our dreams of a world at peace....and triggered a war against an entirely new type of enemy....a ruthless...do anything...kill anybody in any manner whatever....type of enemy.
Even now...they are desperately trying to force the Iraqis to disavow America....and turn the world over to them.
That’s the war we are fighting....and that’s the war that every one of us must devote our every effort to securing a complete, enduring victory.
The alternative is almost too devastating to even consider.
            This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.