My Turn: Remember this about Memorial Day in an election year
My Turn: America is preparing to elect its next commander in chief. What does that mean for our soldiers and veterans?
Memorial Day imposes a duty on all Americans to remember the sacrifice of our fallen heroes and to reflect prayerfully on how best we should steer a course through our dangerous and turbulent world.
Perhaps this year's day of remembrance calls on Americans with particular significance. It requires us to look backward at our past and forward to our future as our nation considers its choices for its next commander in chief.
The sacrifices we made
Just last year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the worst war in human history. Americans parachuted into Normandy as part of Operation Overlord in 1944. The following spring, American soldiers discovered the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. After Eisenhower visited Ohrdruf concentration camp, which had been liberated by American troops on April 4, he declared: “We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now at least he will know what he is fighting against.”
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Over the course of WW II, more than 16 million American men and women served in some capacity in the war. Just over 400,000 Americans, most of them young, never returned from their duties.
Fewer than 1 million of those veterans are still alive today.
On Memorial Day, Americans will visit cemeteries such as Arlington in Virginia, as well as many more around the nation. Many Americans who paid the ultimate price are, however, buried overseas, in 24 different cemeteries in 11 different countries.
Stabilizing Europe
After World War II ended, American servicemen and women stayed in bases across Europe. The Marshall Plan helped to rebuild the shattered economies of postwar Europe. In 1946, Winston Churchill warned of an “Iron Curtain” that had descended on Eastern Europe. NATO was founded in 1949 to confront the challenge of communism.
It wasn't until 1989 that the Cold War finally ended and the Berlin Wall came down. The defeat of fascism and communism was due in large part to the sacrifices of the American servicemen and women that we honor on Memorial Day.
Since 1945, Europe has enjoyed a period of peace, interrupted only by the breakup of Yugoslavia, that is unprecedented in its history. America as well as Europe have benefited from this long peace.
Long fight to stabilize Middle East
Simultaneously, though, Americans have been fighting a war of unprecedented duration. On Sept. 11, 2001, our world suddenly changed. American troops have been engaged in Afghanistan fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban for nearly 15 years. There are soldiers serving today in Afghanistan who were toddlers when the Twin Towers in New York were struck by hijacked commercial airliners.
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Americans confront many dangers. In the Middle East, we must face the challenge posed by ruthless ISIS operatives who have waged a war against diverse people in different countries, and even against history itself. The Syrian civil war has claimed over 100,000 lives and has created the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Recent attacks in Paris, Brussels, and San Bernardino, Calif., remind us that terrorism remains a threat around the world.
Which candidate can best handle our dangerous world?
As we go to the polls in November to select a new commander in chief, we should reflect upon the need for sound, mature judgment in all of our leaders, and particularly in our president.
Americans must consider that they are choosing an individual who controls the most powerful military in the world and who has the power to end life as we know it.
Christopher Kelly is the co-author of "America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth" and "Italy Invades: How Italians Conquered the World."