This axiom generally held true throughout the Pacific War—that each time American commanders considered and debated the option to bypass an island, and finally decided to go ahead and take it, their decision would seem tragically mistaken in hindsight. But they were naturally loath to admit error, either to historians or to themselves, because the blood spilled in those sands could never be unspilled, and no one wanted to hear that young men had died for a mistake.
