Jun 05 2009
D-Day Commemoration Saturday
The 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France will be marked tomorrow. President Obama said during a joint news conference with German chancellor Angela Merkel that the upcoming ceremony is important because the remaining survivors don’t have many years left.
That’s true. A 20-year-old who stormed the beach that day is 85 now. By 1944, Axis forays into north Africa and the Soviet Union had been defeated. However, World War II’s European theater couldn’t have ended without a ground invasion.
After months of organization, D-Day was the beginning of that ground invasion. Within a year, Germany and Italy fell. Hitler and Mussolini were dead. Barely 14 months after D-Day, Japan had also surrendered to officially end the war.
The world seems poised for war, especially in the Middle East. President Obama tried to diffuse tensions during his address in Cairo yesterday. He said he wants a Jewish state and a Palestianian state next to each other peacefully co-existing.
The problem he faces is that not everyone wants peace. Some want eradication. As was learned during World War II, there can be no negotiating with people who want to dominate the world.
