Seeing as everyone else is having a go
here's my contribution:
As far as I can see there's some dispute about war and commiting fully to it these days- if you're going to war, then don't start pissing about pretending how noble and justified it is, you've done that already- just get on with it. and finnish it up as fast as possible (it being war, the best way to do this is to kill as many of the enemy and his reasources as possible in the shortest time) I think that's the gist of what Skybird was on about.
The Japanese strike on pearl harbour; I always understood that this was a inevitable considering japans designs on pacific expansion at the time- the american navy being the largest force to overcome to ensure a chance of victory in the pacific for Japan. They were hardly likely to telephone the president and say "well mr president, we're going to annex all the pacific and to do that we need to remove your pacific fleet from the equation to ensure success. Is a week on friday ok with you for this?" From a Japanese military standpoint this is/was entirely an valid and logical reason for a (to use the modern term) 'pre-emptive first strike' on pearl harbour.
That it's a tragedy of loss of human life is not disputable, but never the less to be expected given the circumstances.
Give a thought to all of them who never came home. It is no more or less a tragedy than anything which happens in wartime if you ask me.