They grow old, those members of the ‘Greatest Generation’ who laid their lives on the line storming the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago June 6. (Editor’s Note: For those too young to have heard the term before, ‘The Greatest Generation’ refers to those who preceded the Boomer gang. It was they who endured the hardships of the Great Depression, who defended democracy on distant shores with their life’s blood).
Their ranks grow ever thinner and this year’s commemoration of the D-Day landings on Juno Beach, where over 20,000 men of the Canadian 3rd and 2nd Divisions stormed ashore to liberate Europe and defend democracy, will likely be the last milestone event where veterans, each at least 90 and many over 100, will take part.
The term ‘Lest We Forget’ has been so oft repeated that we are in danger of forgetting just what those words mean.
Today we stand at the brink, just as those members of the Greatest Generation did in 1938.
Our Western populations have lived largely in peace and plenty (for those younger generations concerned about their future—look up just what the Great Depression entailed) since those thousands of sacrifices bled into the waters of the English Channel. It has been a hard-won peace and prosperity.
In the post-First World War years, Western democracies beat their swords into plowshares, quite literally–the West disarmed and butter concerns far outweighed any thoughts of guns. After all, it was “the war to end all wars.” World peace would be assured by the League of Nations.
The strongmen of the world took note.
Two names that will live forever in infamy, Germany’s Hitler and the Soviet Union’s Stalin, hatched a plan to carve up Poland between them, convinced the West would stand aside with its empty hands, helpless to intervene. While the Russian Empire (let’s face it, that is what it was and is, regardless of its current label) later became our allies against the Nazi regime after being betrayed and invaded by Germany, we tend to forget that salient fact.
The US has maintained a certain ‘Pax America’ under which our nation has sheltered since the end of hostilities circa 1945 and the threat of nuclear annihilation, appropriately labeled with the acronym MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), led to a Cold War in which brinksmanship never really reached the fever pitch to make that cold war so hot (albeit close run with the Cuban Crisis).
In the meantime, it seems we have forgotten.
Only a strong and determined alliance of democracies can rein in the dreams of world domination of strongmen and fascists.
For those wondering what the attraction of The Donald is for our neighbours to the South, the lessons of 1938-42 and US isolationism can prove enlightening. A good many “independent” voters believe the bone spur warrior will keep them out of “foreign” wars. US isolationism is far from dead. US isolationists should perhaps forget the Alamo and remember Pearl Harbour. Stand with your hands in your pocket long enough when a brawl is going on and someone is going to take a poke at you too. Together we stand.
As for our own politicos, it is long past time we reinvigorate our military. Although the Canadian Armed Forces are far from the paper tiger some social media warriors might suggest, our nation still needs to up its game considerably.
It may not be politically popular, but we need to invest a little less in butter and a bit more in guns—it’s not pleasant or “sunny” but we neglect defence to our peril, literally. We need to do it today, not tomorrow.
