Victory, what victory? The generation that's clueless about VE Day

Daily Mail ^ | 5/6/15 | Brown

[kearnyirish2]

I would disagree that WWII was the only central event, for a couple of reasons: It was basically just a continuation of WWI (which in its outcome was probably much more profound - literally the suicide of Europe), and if any event of the twentieth century can be viewed (with our 20/20 hindsight today) as the central event, it should be the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Your life today is much more impacted by that than anything else, and going forward will continue to be; the big players of 1939 to 1945 (including the US) are being reduced to bit parts by emerging powers.

[central_va]

would disagree that WWII was the only central event, for a couple of reasons: It was basically just a continuation of WWI (which in its outcome was probably much more profound - literally the suicide of Europe), and if any event of the twentieth century can be viewed (with our 20/20 hindsight today) as the central event, it should be the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Your life today is much more impacted by that than anything else, and going forward will continue to be; the big players of 1939 to 1945 (including the US) are being reduced to bit parts by emerging powers.

I grew up during the cold war which was a direct off shoot of wwii. It greatly affected a lot of people who had to worry about being incinerated on a daily basis, way overshadows the problems we have with Mo's Goat Humpers. Living with the threat of nuclear war is a lot for children to deal with.

[kearnyirish2]

I absolutely agree with you in a sense; at that time it was the most significant thing in your life. Nobody builds bomb shelters anymore out of fear of WWIII between NATO and Warsaw Pact; they fear dirty bombs from Muslims instead (or random “sudden jihad syndrome” attacks like the DC snipers or Boston Marathon bombers). When I was young (mid-40s now), we referred to Red China as exactly that; Vietnam had ended a few years before and the proxy wars of Latin America were being fought instead. Today those events seem so distant because in the larger scheme of things you don’t see them shaping TODAY’S world; the Islamic Revolution’s impact is still felt every day in most of the world. Even the threats to Pam Geller can trace their roots to the Ayatollah’s “fatwa” on Salman Rushdie for “Satanic Verses” decades ago...