Battleships
....As we’ve been called on to assist our military, I must point out that one of Trump’s suggestions to our Navy in his speech today was questionable. Noting how much he’s enjoyed watching the 1950s documentary series Victory at Sea, about the Navy’s role in winning World War II, Trump said, “I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships, by the way.” Sadly, just three days after their attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan’s aircraft sank Britain’s premier battleship, The Prince of Wales, that had been steaming along on the open sea. Thereafter, naval strategists on both sides viewed battleships as little more than painfully vulnerable targets in the war that followed, opting instead to wage their attacks almost exclusively with carrier-based aircraft. In the Battle of Midway, for instance, Adm. Chester Nimitz deployed his carriers to decisively defeat the Japanese fleet, while sending his battleships almost all the way back to California so they wouldn’t get in the way.
Trump is nothing if not consistent; his affinity for battleships is of a piece with his affinity for coal. For that matter, most Navy ships before 1916 were coal-powered; thereafter, they were powered by oil (and beginning in the 1950s, by nuclear power). Maybe our newest ships can once again be powered by beautiful clean coal: boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past......
prospect.org |
