62nd Anniversary of the "Battle of the Bulge"

If you ask many Americans today what the "Battle of the Bulge" is, they will probably mouthe something about the fight against obesity. Aside from total ignorance, it's most likely proof of how successful we have been in preserving the peace by staying strong and somewhat united.

The "Battle of the Bulge" was of course a pivotal, bloody and painful moment in our history and key to the liberation of France and V I C T O R Y over Nazi Germany in World War II.

On the 60th Anniversary of this great battle, I offered the following post, which I repeat today:

As regrettable as is the death of any single soldier in Iraq, the 60th anniversary puts those sad, but relatively few, numbers in some perspective. War is a nasty business, but consider the alternative. The Nazis never attacked the United States prior to our declaration of war against them. But anyone who ever visited a German Concentration Camp knows why that war was necessary. I suggest those who still oppose the war in Iraq visit Halabja, the site of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons attack against the Kurds

At dawn 60 years ago - The Washington Times: Commentary - December 16, 2004: " Before it was over, the Battle of the Bulge would involve three German armies, the equivalent of 29 divisions; three American armies, or 31 divisions; and three British divisions augmented by Belgian, Canadian and French troops.
More than a million men would be drawn into the battle. The Germans would lose an estimated 100,000 irreplaceable troops, counting their killed, wounded and captured; the Americans would suffer some 80,000 casualties, including 19,000 killed , that's a rate of 500 a day, and 23,554 captured."

And in case you still think U.S. treatment of terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo is the equivalent of Nazi evil, here's a photo I took at the first German concentration camp at Dachau:

They weren't baking bread in those ovens.