I never said they were trying to liberate Hawaii mate?
It was obviously two imperial powers having an imperial conflict - but it's interesting how unexamined the attack on pearl harbour justifying US entry to WW2 among Americans is, given Hawaii is a relatively small island 4,000km from the US mainland and had only been annexed a handful of decades prior (and wouldn't become a state for another ~20 years).
Hey, I purchased a palm oil farm in Gabon pristine African forest land, and without getting these carbon credits for not cutting it down, I'd cut it down every single year
Not to mention the problem with being a global hegemon is that you have to be the best at everything from jungle warfare, force projection across the ocean, European land wars with near-peer capabilities to 'counter insurgency' in the Middle East.
Every other military has to deal with like four or five regionally based scenarios at most.
You'd think so but Americans love Bush now even though he stole the 2000 election