I think that the American people are like most they want to be left alone. The Antiwar left who are committed to ending the terror war short of convincing the enemy of the futility of its campaign know this and have capitalized on it before.

Leadership is required to set forth the reasons and rationale for continuing. Absent that leadership our people will come home and remain quiet until we lose a city or three.

WRT the article, I doubt that the XO could have done very much. KIRISHIMA was getting a 16″ incoming every 20 sec., plus her own batteries were firing at some rate. The whole thing happened between 0100 and 0107. She acted like she was counterflooding because her middle deck was flooded and the wallowing was from the free surface effect of that water. (Free surface magnifies the rolling of a vessel because the water sloshes behind the rolling and independent of the hull) Rounds 6 and 7 would have done her. (IMHO)

XO was probably in the dark about the status of the vessel because the information couldn’t get to him. The 16″ round to the pagoda (which decapitated the ship) likely would take 10 or 15 minutes to begin to digest even if that was the only round.