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Steep price paid for lasting peace

This week marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Neptune, popularly called D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history. Thanks to iconic images and creative re-enactments, the Second World War's "longest day" is etched into millions of minds.
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This week marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Neptune, popularly called D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history. Thanks to iconic images and creative re-enactments, the Second World War's "longest day" is etched into millions of minds. Casualties were 10,000, with over 4,000 confirmed killed-in-action. Despite the brutality of the combat, American, British, and Canadian soldiers successfully secured a beachhead and second front against Nazi Germany.

Three score and fifteen years later, we must ask ourselves at the conclusion of the most expensive and tragic endeavor pursued by mankind, what were the "casus belli;" was the war conducted with the right objectives; and how do we prevent the conditions for another conflict?

The Second World War was unnecessary, according to Sir Winston Churchill. British and French appeasement, along with ineffective political-economy in the Weimar Republic, explain Adolf Hitler's rise to power on a platform of National-Socialism during the Depression. The Allies were exhausted despite their victory in the Great War, quaking from memories of the trenches; Germans resented the Versailles Treaty, ardently believing they could win in a second contest.

Hitler, in collusion with Joseph Stalin's Russia, invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, starting the Second World War, a global conflict foreshadowed by Imperial Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and the just concluded Spanish Civil War.

By 1942, America, Britain and the Commonwealth, as well as the Soviet Union had been put on a war footing against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Unlike the First World War, the Allies chose to obtain an unconditional surrender from their enemies. This would require attacking the Axis' homeland, prolonging the conflict at great expense in men and materials until the fascist powers sued for peace. Finally, a long occupation was required to reconstitute the defeated nations politically.

It is cold comfort to say the enemy sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind, or point to their atrocities: we imitated their total war tactics to ensure our victory. Of course the only thing worse than unethical behavior is failing to learn from it. To that end, we are fortunate to have kept the world relatively peaceful for three generations, much of it thanks to a real-politik equation based on soft power, nuclear weapons, and foreign intervention during the Cold-War Era.

But as the post-war consensus begins to fracture amongst traditional allies, all while new enemies coalesce around regionally weaker nations, the possibility of a third global war grows more likely. The catalysts of world wide conflict have also changed, as attacks on state actors most often come from non-state actors. Deterence against rogue states was lost once, resulting in many millions killed and murdered; but how can we best meet the faceless threats of today?

At a basic level, there is a need for a big stick with which to caution enemies; without the ability to provide for its own security, a nation can become easy prey to predators. It also follows that acquiescing to the demands of bullies invites only more contempt - such actors must be quarantined and sanctioned. Finally, the culture of peaceful nations must not be marked by self-contempt and historical revisionism, for that is an aide only to one's unapologetic enemy.

To be clear, self-correction is a vital part of Western democracy. But those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms cannot be categorized as oppressors by new categories we invented only yesterday. Our ancestors had their faults but do we even match their courage?

Hopefully another Juno Beach will not be necessary to keep the peace. But on this 75th anniversary, it is right and just to carefully consider the delicate balance of power in the world today. The glorious dead paid dearly for our current peace. Will we make the choice to keep it?