World leaders us D-Day to increase war while WWII vet advises otherwise
Alt headline: politicians love war and a WWII vet thinks maybe diplomacy is a good idea
Today, June 6th, marks the 80th anniversary of Allied forces storming the beaches of Normandy, effectively securing victory on the European front in World War II. A year later President Truman would drop atomic bombs on Japanese civilians, ushering in a century of US military adventurism and diplomacy by force. Hasn’t always worked out but that’s a conversation for another time.
Surely there will be an endless stream of D-Day articles available. And many of them will lazily draw a straight line from the fight against Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini to a swath of current official enemies from Putin to Xi to Khamenei (and Hamas). So I’ll make this quick if that’s ok.
I came across one such article this morning from the AP with the headline, “Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons in today's wars.”
Here’s how it starts out.
OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — As young soldiers, they waded ashore in Normandy through gunfire to battle the Nazis. On Thursday, a dwindling number of World War II veterans were joined by a new generation of leaders to honor the dead, the living and the fight for democracy in moving commemorations on and around those same beaches where they landed exactly 80 years ago on D-Day.
The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe.
This connection is about as surprising as the completion of an extra point kick. No mystery here. If you opposed Hitler then by God you oppose Putin. Because the wars are the same. So that’s settled. Now, what do these old guys have to tell us about waging the war in the correct way?
First voice from the aging veterans?
“To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable,” Biden said. “If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.”
Amazing. Joe Biden, who has cheerfully supported every war in his lifetime whether they made sense or not, but somehow never volunteered for service himself, gets first billing. I mean, he seems older and less sentient than anyone else they can quote so I guess fair enough.
Throughout the article, here’s who is quoted, in sequence, with a brief description of who they are:
Biden (President who loves war and funds genocide. Also very old but somehow not quite that old. Also never been in the military let alone combat)
Walter Stitt (WWII vet. More from him in a moment)
Emmanuel Macron (President of France)
Becky (Granddaughter of a WWII vet)
Some French guy and some American guy (Neither one with any apparent connection to WWII vets)
King Charles (!!!)
Anna Mae Krier (Riveter during WWII)
Got that? I suppose we are really in the dwindling number of actual WWII vets. I’m counting one that was actually in a war. Though Anna Mae the Riveter deserves honorable mention and you gotta love the line from her that closes out the piece, “We ended up helping save the world.” She’s right about that. Though it should be noted that so did the Russians, a fact to which the article pays the faintest lip-service possible.
Predictably, Biden, Macron and King Charles make their case for stepping up their proxy war in Ukraine (which in the last couple of days has seen an unthinkably reckless escalation of green-lighting US weapons for strikes inside of Russia).
As a side-note, there is no mention in the article of the ongoing destruction of women and children in Gaza, though images of children burnt alive in Rafah are readily available with a five-second google search. If you’re looking for a good comp to WWII maybe check into upwards of 40,000 civilians with nowhere to go being exterminated by a blitz with no end in sight. It’s not happening in Ukraine. That’s happening in Gaza.
And while world leaders use words like “democracy,” “freedom” and “dictators,” the lone combat veteran quoted, nearly 100-year-old Walter Stitt had this to say:
“There are things worth fighting for,” said Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. “Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other.”
“We’ll learn one of these days, but I won’t be around for that,” he said.
The guy who actually fought in tanks on beaches in World War II is the only one in the article who even mentions the peace and diplomacy. He’s the only one who thinks killing each other just might not be the best option. Maybe, using his logic, every official bad guy is not planning to march all over Europe to destroy the Jews and conquer the world.
I wonder if Walter knows about the peace agreement between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky in March of 2022 that was ended at the behest of the US and UK. I wonder if he knows about Hamas’ repeated efforts to bring a permanent ceasefire to their people in exchange for prisoners.
Or for that matter, about Afghanistan’s offer to surrender the Taliban to the Bush/Cheney administration before our 20 year invasion and occupation of their country.
Or does Mr. Stitt simply possess the experience that comes from not only a century on this planet but having his young life marked by death, destruction and trauma that is difficult to comprehend?
Either way it’s Mr. Stitt, World War II veteran and 99-year-old hero who wants to give peace a chance. While those involved in and profiting from war want it to escalate.
God bless Mr. Stitt, those who fought against Nazis and those who call for peace everywhere and at every time.