VICTORY!

I used to eat lunch beside this monument. Know what it is?

(photo by Mike's America)

This week marks the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. According to Wikipedia, nearly sixty nine million people died with untold millions more scarred for life by the experience.

It was a war that could have been prevented. On a foggy late winter morning, March 7, 1936, Nazis marched a small contingent of troops back into the Rhineland, a move that was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I.

France was obliged to act to repel this invasion. France could have easily done so with hundreds of thousands of troops nearby. But France did nothing. The League of Nations did what such International Organizations do, they talked. Winston Churchill warned of the danger, but was called a warmonger.

Hitler realized at the time that it was a gamble on his part; he counted on the British and French to be weak. Had they opposed him, it was quite likely that he would have been removed from office in Germany by a coup.

Yet, the "peace at any price" crowd prevailed and Hitler was free to continue his massive military buildup so that three years later, he unleashed the blitzkreig on Poland and later on France.

Has History Taught Us Nothing?

Today, we find ourselves in a new war. It was declared some years ago with ever increasing ferocity leading up to the vile attacks of September 11th and beyond.

Yet, the "peace at any price" mindset by some is still very much with us. It comes now in the form of those who say that "This country is not worth dying for." Will we wait until some greater horror is unleashed before we unite as a nation with other free peoples and take the effective steps necessary to win?