Been There Done That
From Lead and Gold comes a link to an article cautioning perspective about Iraq by relating some circumstances during the first 12 months of WWII.
Nor was the administration immune to criticism, particularly for its commitment to defeating Germany first. Given that it had been the Japanese who had attacked Pearl Harbor, Americans found it difficult to understand why in the first months of the war more U.S. troops were being sent to the United Kingdom than to, say, the Philippines, where they might help Gen. Douglas MacArthur to stop the invading Japanese forces. A Gallup poll showed that a substantial majority of the population believed that Japan was the nation?s "chief enemy," and therefore that most of the country?s resources should be committed to the Pacific. In fact, as late as mid-1943 a bipartisan group of senators?all of whom, it should be noted, had a history of opposition to the president?s policies?were accusing the administration of an almost criminal neglect of the war against Japan.
Read the whole thing.