Tag: Memorial Day

“Was this trip necessary?”

6:01 pm

An evening pause: On Memorial Day, let’s revisit an evening pause from 2011 of one short scene from the William Wellman film, Battleground (1949), to remind us why sometimes it is necessary to fight a war.

The saddest thing about this clip is how ugly it makes too many modern Americans look, for they have adopted the certain, ignorant, and bigoted aspects of the totalitarians from the 1930s and 1940s that the generation then fought so hard to defeat. Today’s American totalitarians — almost all of whom are on the left — are certain that because Donald Trump is doing things they disagree with, he along with all of his supporters should be killed. No debate is permitted. They are right and anyone who challenges them is evil.

Memorial Day is not simply about remembering the dead so that they will not have died in vain. It is also about remembering why they died.

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The B-1 Lancer Bomber

6:01 pm

An evening pause: One reason we have a Memorial Day is to honor those who have died to keep us free. We also remember them to remind us that the sacrifice was necessary.

I think it is long past time to repeat the same effort, no matter the cost, and use this plane’s payload a lot more than we are. There are people in the Middle East who are gleefully killing people for the sake of power. We should no longer tolerate them.

Hat tip Rocco.

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Berlin July 1945 in color

6:01 pm

An evening pause: For Memorial Day, on which we not only honor the war dead but we are supposed to refresh our memories about why we fought in the first place. This color footage of occupied Berlin shortly after surrender shows the devastation after World War II. Though it is tragic to see, I will be honest and admit that I feel little sorrow. The Germans brought this upon themselves by plunging the world into two world wars, and in the second used it as an excuse to commit unspeakable genocide. In order to make sure they would never do it again, and would instead become a part of the civilized world, it was necessary to hit them as hard as these images show. Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin all understood this. So did the entire populations of all three allies.

If only we had the courage today to do the same to the petty dictators and Islamic fanatics in the Middle East. They are as brutal, as violent, and as bigoted as the Nazis were, and will soon have atomic weapons at their disposal to use as they wish. To really bring them to heel they need to be given the same harsh lessons we gave the Germans.

I fear however we will not have the courage to do so until after they drop some nuclear bombs on a few cities.

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