The 61st anniversary of D-Day will take place this coming Monday—marking a day that will forever be seen as a tremendous step forward in defeating Hitler’s reign of terror.
But would the sheer number of allied dead and wounded be portrayed as a “victory” in today’s world of the 24-hour news cycle?
According to http://www.warchronicle.com, it is estimated that 8,443 allied troops were killed or injured during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Canadian casualties are conservatively estimated at 961.
To put these numbers into context, after two years of fighting in Iraq, 1,846 coalition troops have lost their lives—1,662 of them American.
The loss of life to retain our values only 60 years ago is astounding. It is also astounding that the sacrifice was never questioned as being necessary.
And yet today, there is example after example of our government’s poor treatment of not just our brave veterans who sacrificed so much for our freedom many years ago, but of those who choose to serve in our Armed Forces today.
Shamefully, our prime minister missed the main 60th Anniversary of VE-Day celebrations honouring freedom-fighting Canadian soldiers in the Netherlands in May. Tricky Liberals cited a potential non-confidence vote as Paul Martin’s excuse. But the House of Commons was not in session over that weekend when the VE-Day parade took place giving Martin and the Canadian delegation plenty of time to make it over to Holland in time for the May 8 parade and event. Instead, Martin didn’t show up until the Monday, having to attend a hastily arranged little event instead.
Just a few days ago it was announced that the four diesel-electric submarines bought used from Britain in 1998 may take years of hard work to be fully operational and safe.
Other than increasing trade, the main responsibility of the government is to protect its citizens with a strong military. But, similar to most European militaries, the gutting of our Canadian military has meant Canada can no longer pull its weight internationally, foisting the U.S. into an expensive “world police” role.
Watching Hotel Rwanda on DVD recently, it was galling to see many of the same groups that criticize the U.S. for going into Iraq also expected the U.S. to intervene in Rwanda.
The U.S. is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Criticism of the U.S. going into Iraq is always accompanied with comparisons to Vietnam. But there are really more similarities between the liberation of Iraq and the Second World War.
As the number of allied graves scattered across Europe and Asia show, WWII victory and the peace that followed certainly came at an enormous cost.
The U.S. realized that democracy has a better chance of growing in a stable economic environment, which is why it initiated a massive cash infusion in the form of the Marshall Plan that also saved Europe from communism. Today, the Americans are following a similar policy, having the courage to stay in Iraq—in spite of world pressure—building up Iraqi infrastructure with similar cash infusions.
VE-Day signified the end of the Second World War in Europe—and D-Day, that took place only one year earlier, was the key.
As VE-Day’s 60th Anniversary has shown, our Liberal government remains a dollar short and a day late, when it comes to our own Canadian military and veterans. Everyone knows the real reason Canada could not support the U.S. in Iraq is a simple military manpower shortage.
Yet, this Liberal government continues to poke its finger in America’s eye every chance it gets while quietly fighting the war on terror in Afghanistan (hoping Quebec voters won’t notice).
The Americans will stay the course in this war. America is like the industrious “the little red hen” in the old children’s story: It does not shirk the hard work included in removing a brutal dictator. While unlike 60 years ago, Canada has sadly become a like the tricky fox that will no doubt try to capitalize on the red hen’s hard work after the job is done.
Copyright ? 2005 Janet L. Jackson.
Columnist for the Calgary Sun, Janet L. Jackson is also Executive Director of the Canadian Conservative Union. Through her work with conservative political action committees, Jackson has been an effective and prominent voice for preserving traditional marriage, religious freedom and free speech.
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