We remembered Pearl Harbor last week. Not as many remembered it this year as previous years if the lack of coverage on the news channels is any indication, but those of us who study history certainly remember it.

It was the day a first world nation and military power with the best planes and the best ships decided to start a war with another first world nation. They were confident the other nation would not have the drive and stubbornness to fight them back. They were wrong. They were so very wrong.

Their wrongness resulted in many of their biggest cities being firebombed into oblivion, and when they fought on through that, the nuclear bombardment of two of their cities. The devastation was horrendous. Cities destroyed. Families wiped out. Millions of people dead.

That is the risk any nation takes when they swagger up and hit the big red button of war.