<http://www.io.com/~flashlk/quizofweek.htm> says:
Question 1: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve." Who said that and in what circumstance? (Difficulty 6). Answer 1: Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, commenting on the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941). Probably no truer words were ever spoken. The sneak attack that decimated the Pacific Fleet also unified the American people like no other single event in its history. From that point forward, the fascist powers were doomed. Source: Pearl Harbor, a Life Magazine Collector's Edition
If whoever bothered to invent that pseudo-quotation bothered to learn hitory of WWII, he'd know that most military action had seen no American involvement at all. The widely regarded as the turning point of WWII was Stalingrad battle, after which Red Army began the advancement on all fronts. US become involved in the continental WWII to prevent Soviets from occupation of the entire Europe, not to win the war with Germany. It was already going to be defeated (and it was the Red Army which took Berlin).
From the point of view of saving Europe from communism it was a brilliant move - wait for both sides to become exhausted before getting in. By that time the Red Army had no resources to fight both desperate Nazi and Allied Forces (Japanese were no threat at all to USSR because it was protected by huge very sparsely inhabited landmass, so they could be safely ignored for a while), and this is how the modern political map of Europe came to be.
Of course, American school textbooks forget those small details and make it look like that US nearly single-handedly defeated fascism. It didn't. To get a sense of what was going on and who was fighting whom see http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-loss.htm And if you ever wondered why America dropped A-bomb on Japan - it was to prevent imminent occupation of Japan by the Red Army. After Germany capitulated the Soviet armies were quickly shipped eastward, and were quickly advancing (this you can also see on the world political map, especially if you compare pre-war and post-war boundaries). The only way to prevent People's Republic of Japan was to scare s*t out of Japanese to force them to capitulate to Americans. The myth that American involvement in WWII made a significant difference from the point of view of defeating fascism is just a myth. What US involvement did is to check advancement of communists, not Nazis. No wonder, US immediately took place of the main enemy of the Soviet Union. It still was worth it, Stalin was no better than Hitler. Sorry, fellow Americans, you _are_ brainwashed if you believe the drivel they teach you as "history". "Fascist powers were doomed" because of Pearl Harbor, sure. Until you check the figures and actually think for a second or two. --vadim PS If you want to know how _that_ is related to Sep 11, you may be interested to know that Chechens were collaborating with Nazi; which prompted Stalin to retaliate after the war with mass deportations. They were allowed to return decade or so later, having no love for Russians and the Allies in WWII. That's how their militant leaders became natural allies with Middle-Eastern terrorists, including (surprise) bin Laden.