In the midst of the media blitz caused by the Orange Crush in Alberta and the surprise majority for the UK's Tories, it was hard to give the 70th anniversary of victory in Europe its due attention. And while the actual date has now passed us, I believe it's still important to reflect on what that day meant in its time, and how the peace is going three generations later.
Many people still living will tell you that no other day will measure up to a particular moment they experienced in history: the moon landings, the fall of the Berlin Wall, even 9/11 and Obama's election in 2008 are all often mentioned.
But it must be stated unequivocally that the celebration that followed the defeat of Nazi Germany will never be replicated in human history. A living embodiment of terror, evil, domination, and ruthless violence, which only five years before appeared unstoppable, had been defeated by the populations, resources, and arms of no less than 20 united nations. Upon the announcement of Germany's surrender, more than half the world took to the streets in exultation.
While this certainly was a momentous occasion, and guaranteed doom for fascist Japan, the last remaining member of the axis, we would do well to soberly recall the cost of peace. Millions of civilians and combatants perished as a direct result of the disarmament and appeasement that Britain, France, and the United States had pursued through the 1920s and 1930s, all while Germany built up forces contrary to Versailles and other treaties. As Churchill himself notes in his seminal volumes on the Second World War, it cannot be ignored that had the allied powers acted sooner, much bloodshed and evil could have been prevented.
Seventy years after this hard fought victory, much of the world finds itself in peril once again, as regional players attempt to consolidate power and increase their influence in the face of an exhausted and internally discordant United States. From the Western shores of the Sahara to Beijing, from Moscow to Tehran, powerful forces are at work to unmake the post war consensus either through direct or proxy confrontation with America and her allies.
And, just as there was in the interwar period in Britain, a vocal minority of isolationists and politically correct apologists have combined to spread the idea that America's dual roles as a model nation and world policeman are incompatible. Even now, the current Commander in Chief is moving towards a general retreat from bases and responsibilities around the globe, to the point of compromise with known war criminals and sworn enemies of close allies. This will not work, as those arrayed against the Free World understand only one thing: power.
Therefore, in this 70th year since the greatest victory ever won for the cause of liberty, we might do well to understand our elders' accomplishments were foundations to build upon, not laurels to take for granted. From the ruins of Berlin 1945, and the countless graves dug throughout Europe, it was expected that future generations would be more vigilant so that the economic and political climate that allowed Hitler's rise to power and the atrocities of the Second World War could not reoccur. Yet even now, we are again on the cusp of tragedy.
There is still time, but America and her allies must act quickly to prevent a critical mass of enemies assembling against them. Politicians in the West will have to give up their habits of maneuver and posturing for its own sake, and begin to back up their words with arms and sanctions. The sooner the West acts, the easier it will be to disperse our enemies - for we must recall that while evil may play on our fear and greed, it really does have a weak constitution. In the end, tyranny's only chance for success, now or in the past, is for good people to do nothing.
