We Are Not Alone

The half-page advertisement in yesterday's Crimson by the Harvard Committee Against Military Intervention seems to us a remarkable example of specious reasoning. Yet we printed this advertisement, and we shall continue to print any advertisement which those who disagree with us wish to place. At this time especially we must give the dissenters every opportunity to be heard, and we should have sufficient confidence in the justice of our cause to risk exposure to criticism.

But the Committee's arguments call for an answer. The obvious conclusion from the events of the past few days seems to be that this is a global war, and one from which no nation can afford to remain aloof, The Committee, however, has taken it as an occasion for an isolationist harangue. It would seem clear from news dispatches that victory will only be possible through full cooperation among all the nations opposing Hitler. The Committee, nevertheless, declares we must fight alone. British forces in Singapore and Hong-Kong, and British war-vessels in the Pacific are fighting alongside us, while British sea-power in the Atlantic enables us to divert more of our fleet for the Asiatic struggle, yet the Committee accuses America of "neglecting her defenses by pursuing an irresponsible and sentimental pro-British policy."

Perhaps the Committee can be pardoned for omitting completely any reference to the internal situation in Japan, which was compelling her to attack us, on the desperate chance of victory, rather than suffer slow death by attrition, and also to the powerful "Young Colonel" clique, clamoring for action at all costs. But the argument is completely invalidated by lack of any reference to one of the most important motivating forces behind the attack on Hawaii, the force acting along the Berlin-Tokyo axis.

President Roosevelt warned last night: "Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment, just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain and Russia." The Committee, however, has announced: "We shall continue to obstruct to the best of our ability every move in the direction of further involvement in European affairs." Isolationism dies hard. Let us hope that its demise will come soon enough not to obstruct seriously our present war effort.