This Memorial Day we can look at the huge sacrifice of the Ukrainian soldiers to see how freedom is paid with lakes of blood.
Once again, a tyrannical dictator, untethered by checks and balances, is maiming and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in a blatant war of aggression. Evil exists and is active.
The Russian bullies thought they could just roll their tanks into Kiev and take over, subjecting Ukraine to the same corrupt kleptocracy that plagues the poor Russian citizens. But it didn’t go down that way. The Ukrainian people, led by the most improbable national hero in history, stopped the blitzkrieg in its tracks.
Ukrainian president Zelensky has now crossed the globe rallying the powers of freedom and democracy to make a stand with the stalwart Ukrainian people. We should rally behind him and stop this Russian aggression before the cancer spreads. The West has no alternative.
Freedom and tyranny are real and diametrically opposed. Any American can criticize the President of the United States in whatever way he or she so chooses without the fear of arrest. We Americans take this for granted.
We should not do so. This freedom was paid for with lakes of blood. It is precious and sacred.
Just look at tyranny around the world. In China, dissidents just disappear, vanishing without a word. Some communist goons simply whisk them off the streets never to be seen again.
In Turkey, 13,000 citizens are in jail for the crime of “insulting the president.” Their president, Racip Erdogan, is a tyrant. In Saudi Arabia, the crowned prince murdered a critical journalist, chopping him up into pieces to hide the body. In Venezuela, dictator Nicolas Maduro jails his political opponents and terrorizes citizens. The communists in Cuba throw mothers in prison and throw away the key just for asking what happened to their sons and husbands. In Russia, you can be jailed for ten years for calling the “special military operation” a war. The list goes on and on.
As we enjoy the fruits of freedom this weekend, please consider the cost of the sacrifice making this possible.
Memorial Day is set aside to honor the 1.2 million Americans who died fighting for this country. About half of those soldiers died in combat. The other half died from accidents, disease and other wartime hazards.
Sixty million people died in World War II. That number is so staggering one simply cannot comprehend it. Half were civilians. The United States got off light, only 416,000 soldiers died. Still, a staggering number.
For every soldier who died during wartime, 50 served and lived. We honor them on Veterans Day in November.
By far, two wars contributed the most U.S. deaths: The Civil War and WW II. Those two wars produced 90 percent of the U. S. war time fatalities. For every fatality, the U. S. suffered an additional wounded soldier. The Vietnam War cost the lives of 55,000 U. S. soldiers and the Korean War cost 50,000 lives. It's staggering to comprehend.
Since the founding of our country, there have been about 600 million Americans. So every soldier that died gave 600 Americans a chance to live in freedom. That’s worth remembering.
With a professional military and no major wars in two generations, it’s easy to forget the huge cost in lives to maintain the freedom that Americans enjoy. The American military is the greatest force in the history of the world. Unbelievably, we take it for granted. They not only protect the United States. They protect the entire world.
Imagine: The greatest military force in the history of the world, but instead of conquest, they fight for peace, freedom and liberty.
Who in America feels threatened by our military? Very few. Because our powerful military is committed down to every last soldier to defend freedom and liberty, not attack it. There is a strict prohibition in the American military from getting involved in civilian political affairs.
Competency? This is one area of the government that works. They do things right. The American military is so dominant that no one in the world would consider challenging it. Not because they don’t want to, but because they know they cannot succeed. We need to keep it this way.
In recent years, the rise of fanatical Muslim groups led to American military engagement in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Arab countries, leading to thousands of deaths. After the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, American leaders decided to nip this in the bud. Historians will debate whether this was the appropriate policy, but the Muslim threat is now greatly reduced.
North Korea’s hideous dictator Kim Jong-Un continues to threaten a nuclear missile attack. However, his communist country is so poor and weak economically, it's hard to imagine that threat becoming real. Let's hope U. S. technology and economic prowess can build missile defense systems capable of deterring such an attack.
China is threatening the free forces of Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and the United States in the South China Sea. They have a powerful economy and a horrible one-party dictatorship for a government. Our hopes to befriend them through trade have failed and we need to reduce our trade with this undemocratic country.
War has changed since World War II, which killed an unfathomable 60 million people, three percent of the total population of the world. Half died in battle, half to famine and disease.
Now we have weapons of mass destruction, 15 times more powerful than the ones detonated to end World War II. One hydrogen bomb dropped on a big city would kill millions instantly and millions later. So far, that hasn’t happened. We pray to God it never happens. In the meantime, these terrible weapons have prevented the recurrence of another world war. There are no winners in a nuclear holocaust. Mutually assured destruction makes war intolerable to all sane countries.
But the fear of nuclear holocaust did not stop Russia from invading Ukraine. It’s clear that despite nuclear weapons, conventional wars can still occur. We just continue to invest in the latest technology to preserve our freedom.
If ever a war was a battle between good and evil, the last major war was. Can you imagine if Hitler had been victorious? What would the world be like? To think the Germans were just a few years from developing the atomic bomb.
We live by the providence of God. Given the stupidity and sinfulness of man, there is no other rational explanation. We can take comfort that all these men who died in battle were in the hands of a merciful Lord.
