One of the best parts of my job is that every few years I accompany a group of Princeton students to Normandy to see the sites where the American military landed in June of 1944, and then to follow the progress of their campaign through to the liberation of Paris.
The students were fortunate to have you with such a great sense of both the overview and the details. I wish I had been there. Going there is always an unforgettable experience and also one of great sadness for so many lives lost.
Aside from considerations of the remarkable efficiency, bravery, and organization that characterized many operations during WWII (yet surely there were also miscalculations, friendly fire, etc. which you allude to), it seems like you may have missed an opportunity to reflect on the ideology surrounding WWII itself, namely the idea that it was a perfectly justified war of good vs. evil where good was triumphant. Setting side whether or not that was actually true (the US, after all, entered the war mainly because of the attack on Pearl Harbor), one has to wonder how it compares to all the wars fought since then: Korea, Vietnam, and all of the misguided military operations in the Middle East. What’s the ideological work being done by all of the attention given to D-Day, including Princeton’s own study trip? Is there almost a nostalgia for a “just war”?
It’s almost as if the self-righteousness won during WWII has helped propel a long series of disastrous decisions to enter wars since then, up to the present day.
I have always found it an affront to human dignity that the USA marks each final resting place of servicemen with a Cross - apart from the odd Star. You seem to conveniently ignore the separation of powers inherent in the USA Constitution and the freedom to die without being commemorated by a heathen Cross.
The students were fortunate to have you with such a great sense of both the overview and the details. I wish I had been there. Going there is always an unforgettable experience and also one of great sadness for so many lives lost.
Thanks so much, Lynn!
Aside from considerations of the remarkable efficiency, bravery, and organization that characterized many operations during WWII (yet surely there were also miscalculations, friendly fire, etc. which you allude to), it seems like you may have missed an opportunity to reflect on the ideology surrounding WWII itself, namely the idea that it was a perfectly justified war of good vs. evil where good was triumphant. Setting side whether or not that was actually true (the US, after all, entered the war mainly because of the attack on Pearl Harbor), one has to wonder how it compares to all the wars fought since then: Korea, Vietnam, and all of the misguided military operations in the Middle East. What’s the ideological work being done by all of the attention given to D-Day, including Princeton’s own study trip? Is there almost a nostalgia for a “just war”?
It’s almost as if the self-righteousness won during WWII has helped propel a long series of disastrous decisions to enter wars since then, up to the present day.
I have always found it an affront to human dignity that the USA marks each final resting place of servicemen with a Cross - apart from the odd Star. You seem to conveniently ignore the separation of powers inherent in the USA Constitution and the freedom to die without being commemorated by a heathen Cross.