In any event, the US didn't need an excuse to join the war. Germany was giving us plenty already.

Pure historical revisionism. Isolationism was a strong force in the US and it's not like popular sentiment was opposed to fascism. The attack was extremely convenient for "forcing" the US to participate without the isolationists being able to complain about getting "needlessly entangled in foreign affairs".

Not that I think the US did wrong by fighting Japan. I don't know very much about the state of the US military at the time but really my biggest qualm in terms of the start of the war is that they didn't start fighting the Nazis sooner.