America's history is embellished with some of the great conflicts that have ever fought for civilizations and great ideals. This was World War II, sometimes called the Great War. As is often the case, it was not a war that America wanted to be a part of. Often times, when aggressors bring war to America, they have to respond. But whenever America responded, with a fury that its enemies rarely forget. When you think about it, the very idea of a world war is very scary. And in any case, WWII was a world war because it plunged nearly every country and every continent into a global conflict that spanned years. The enemies of America and its allies were well-armed, intelligent, determined and strong. But America was ready to challenge, and it will be ready to challenge again if people like Hitler dare to threaten civilization in this way once again. The Second World War was also a textbook for flawless cooperation with our allies. Working with them almost as if we were one country and one army, we have deployed our forces on numerous battlefields from Europe to Asia to Russia and around the world. We had to fight multiple enemies. Hitler's Germany alone was a formidable foe, as it spreads its evil influence across Europe, taking over from country to country and threatening to engulf the entire continent, and then goes on to seize lands in Central Asia and even America. But we also had powerful enemies in Germany's allies, especially Japan. When this formidable enemy struck our forces at Pearl Harbor, it was an undeniable blow to America. For Japan, they hoped to cripple the American military and remove all hope in the American heart of being able to respond or be part of the conflict. The opposite happened as every man, woman, and child in America came together to build the kind of war machine that would bring the Axis powers to an end, no matter the cost. But the most important thing America said to the world when it took Hitler's armies and defeated them was that the totalitarian rule of free peoples would never be tolerated. Hitler had dreams of early Germanic empires dominating the world like the great kings of ancient Rome. But when we founded this country, America threw out dictators and declared that we would not be pawns of kings or tyrants. While the will of jihad remained in this country, we would not surrender this freedom of struggle to a madman. It was not an easy or free war. Thousands of American youth gave their lives to protect the freedoms won by our ancestors. Our leaders had to show determination and unity that they would not blink in the face of a challenge and fail to fail the brave American soldier or civilian population who stood behind them until Hitler and his allies were defeated. The world saw what America had become in this great conflict. He saw that a country endowed with great wealth and prosperity was also willing to use these resources to defend its borders and allies. Learning that America is not a country to be taken lightly in war has been a hard lesson for our enemies. But then, even though we were defeated, we showed that we are not a vindictive country when we reached out to Japan, Germany and other defeated peoples and helped them get out of this terrible war again. This is a testament to the American spirit and the American understanding of fair play. Let's hope an enemy never stands up again to stand up to test this, because they will see that, as Hitler did, America will not fail to respond to his legacy of war call or honor call.
You must be logged in to post a comment.