Three Things Obama Should Think About While Watching The Pacific

At approximately 5 p.m. today, Barack and Michelle Obama will host a screening of The Pacific, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s new HBO miniseries documenting the American Marines involvement in the Pacific theater during World War II. Hanks and Spielberg will be on hand, as will national security adviser and retired four-star general James L. Jones, as well as members of the V.F.W. and Women in the Military Service for the American Memorial. As the president draws down troops in Iraq and ramps up the war in Afghanistan, he has a lot to learn from America’s past conflicts. This fall, when the White House was reevaluating its strategy on Afghanistan, Obama’s staff passed around Lessons in Disaster, Gordon Goldstein’s account of then national security adviser McGeorge Bundy’s poor decision-making in the early days of Vietnam. The Pacific is a miniseries, not a documentary or memoir, but Hanks and Spielberg (who also produced Band of Brothers) stay true to history’s timeline. Herewith, three things Obama should reflect upon about while watching The Pacific.

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