Posted by
EWRoss on Friday, June 05, 2009 8:00:00 AM
Tomorrow's 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion provides us an opportunity to reflect on how America’s approach to war and our enemies has changed over the past six-and-a-half decades. WWII in Europe was an all-out war against the brutal Nazi occupation of mainland Europe and its assaults on Great Britain and Russia. D-Day was an all-out commitment to victory and the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. The horror of WWII, in which more than 55 million people died, and nuclear weapons have deterred countries from pursuing all-out wars. The Cold War, proxy wars, limited wars, insurgencies, and terrorism replaced them. The US and its allies won the Cold War, but we’ve had limited success with the others, lacking international and national consensus. We should ask ourselves, however, whether the jihadists and rogue states with nuclear weapons we face today are any less a threat to our way of life and national existence than were the Nazis and whether any less a commitment to victory will defeat them.