Posted on 09/02/2010 8:22:52 PM PDT by 60Gunner
In the nearly seven decades that have elapsed since the end of the Second Word War, it has sometimes been asserted that America won because “we were on the side of moral right.” In that light, it is entirely appropriate to observe that the righteous fury that Japan ignited in American hearts at Pearl Harbor provided the undergirding for her determination to prosecute what most people at the time were firmly convinced would be a very long (ten years was predicted by some) and costly war.
However, while moral convictions might compel a nation to fight a war, they afford no practical means to win a war. America’s convictions certainly offered little comfort during the first six months of the war. During that bleak and ominous period, many American leaders openly doubted America's ability to defeat the seemingly invincible Empire of Japan. Yet America achieved victory with a degree of swiftness, resolution, completeness, and decisiveness unprecedented in human history, and never to be seen again. Only three years and nine months had passed between the time the United States Fleet lay in smoldering ruin on the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the day it sailed triumphantly into Tokyo Bay. But I propose that it was not the righteousness of our cause that propelled us there. Men and women, wearing the uniforms of all services, paid the bill. Therein lies a truth:
Freedom costs blood.
Our righteous anger did not stop the Japanese tide of advance at Midway against overwhelming odds. Our Sailors and Aviators did.
Our convictions did not pour their blood out on the sand of North Africa, Sicily, Anzio, and Normandy, or on the islands of Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Bougainville, New Britain, New Guinea, Tarawa, the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, the Philippines, and Okinawa. Our Marines and Soldiers did.
Moral superiority did not stand resolutely at his post as a kamikaze sprayed flaming hell and destruction upon his ship and his mates. It was an American Sailor and an American Marine who did that.
The righteousness of our cause did not purge the world of Hitler’s vile tyranny, break open the gates of Auschwitz, or free the Pacific Islands from three long years of torture, slavery, rape and murder. Our Soldiers and Marines did that.
Our certainty of justice did not steer the landing craft toward all those beaches against a murderous hail of fire from well-prepared bunkers and pillboxes on Normandy, Peleliu, Saipan, and Iwo Jima. Our Coast Guardsmen and Sailors did that.
It is because of those expenditures made out of each serviceman’s free will that I, for one, will not remember this day simply for the righteousness of our cause, or the nobility of our crusade to free the oppressed- although the importance of these things must not be overlooked. But today, I wish to measure the magnitude of what we have gained in units of blood. That was the price of admission to the victory parade then, and it is the price for victory over tyranny in any era.
For it is only when I consider the incalculable cost in blood for the freedom I enjoy that I may then rightly sense the moral obligation that rests upon my shoulders to preserve that for which my grandfather, father, and uncles gave so much of themselves. If freedom and justice are righteous causes, then it is with the blood of our willing forebears- and of those who serve today- that they are consecrated. It kindles my hope to know that men and women still stand ready to pay that cost, and it would be to my eternal shame should I ever forget that.
That said, the only reason we didn't have anti-war protests during WW II was because National Socialist Adolf Hitler made the mistake of invading fellow Socialist nation the USSR. Even lefties like George McGovern became war heroes.
What an excellent post and perfect expression.
My grandmother is very, very old. So old at 102, that the high school kids visit each year to ask her about history.
I am fortunate that I am very, VERY close to her, though I have lost both of my parents before I turned 40 this year..my father died when I was 28 and my mother died in January of this year.
Three of my grandmother’s brothers went to fight in WWII. One did not.
My grandmother said that she went to her mother’s before they went off to war and when she went two weeks later, her mother’s hair had turned grey.
One of the brothers was on the (Anzio Beach)? And two others were in the Pacific theatre.
The family was fortunate, while one of them died fairly young...all three brothers survived. There even was apparently a story about one of the brothers in the Pacific theatre finding out that his brother was within driving distance and getting permission to take a Jeep and see him.
Granma has v-mail in her cedar chest. She showed me some letters, but I didn’t see much, and didn’t want to handle these things, as they seem fragile and historic.
I just wonder if new generations would be so reverential towards them. And even, when the students would come to see grandma... they sometimes didn’t ask very deep questions. I would have to prompt them, “Ask her what it was like to try to buy things at the store.”
“Ask her how often people in the neighborhood got news that they had lost someone.”
“Ask her how they got news.”
“Ask her how she feels about America.”
It’s too easy to just say, “Oh, these kids these days....”
Our schools have failed to teach history.
The new regime seems to want to ignore history and try to forge a new thing. Even if it needs to change our foundations to try to forge this new thing. This new thing will be a clueless, reckless thing if we ignore our foundation.
Funny thing is, I was selling cars years ago. Had a customer born in 1942, named Adolf....thought that was strange....
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