The Pearl Harbor attack wasn`t entirely dumb from retrospect. Prior to Roosevelt`s draft, the United States had the tenth-smallest army in the world, and they were probably working with that old information. The United States had isolationist foreign policy and numerous neutrality laws, so it was unlikely that it would go to war. Japan had seen immense success in the Pacific, and the same was true for its allies in Europe. All the oil reserves, battleships, destroyers, much of the U.S. Air Force, etc. was stationed at one naval base, so if the attack was successful, it could cripple the United States military so much that it could take years or even decades for it to mass enough strength to respond.

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