The Longest Day...
Today is the anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. D-Day. The Invasion of Europe. The Liberation of France, which would lead, eventually, to the Liberation of All Europe. Sixty-four years ago this day, half-a-million young men were ready to charge into the heart of the defenses of the Nazi regime and within a year of the landings on French soil, would tear it's heart out.

Thousands of men would be killed and wounded on that day in 1944, many would never have the chance for a fair fight, being mowed down or drown by the boatload before they could reach shore. Some would burn to death in their aircraft, others would be killed as they slowly parachuted to earth by alerted defenders. But enough of them stuck, and they advanced, and they triumphed.

The world owes them a debt of gratitude. Those young men, and their counterparts who fought the Italians, and the Japanese in the Pacific, did the world a favor by sacrificing their blood and lives for the benefit of mankind. Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo represented the worst that human nature had to offer, and there was no choice to but to fight them and destroy the systems they promulgated. The world would be a much more digusting place than it is now, had the Nazis won.

Thanks, from me, to all you guys who did it, and lived. You were great. To those who gave their lives --- you were magnificent.

Requiesat In Pacem