Eighty years ago today, 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches on the northern shores of France. There are precious few living survivors of that historic event. Weeks later, the Allied forces reclaimed much of northwest Europe. About a year later, WWII ended when both Germany and Japan surrendered. The approximate body count for the war, Allied and Axis military and civilians is 75,000,000. At the time, it was literally a victory for democracy over Fascism and military dictatorships. It was truly a world war.

Eighty years later, I cannot but wonder what the handful of Allied survivors think of the 2024 world that confronts them. How can any of us imagine what they make of 2024 as their fog of that war and what was at stake is embedded in their psyches? Those survivors saved the world, literally, from the forces of evil. It is the last war involving the U.S. military that had that massive of a mission to accomplish. It is the last war involving the U.S. in which losing would result in dire, drastic consequences.  How many of the generations that ensued after that global bloodbath even know anything about D-Day and what was at stake?

Many dignitaries are paying their respects to those survivors and over 20,000,000 of the fallen Allied soldiers today, on those same beaches in France. One of those people is is an eighty year old man who has helped one part of the world become a less safe place for a certain population. This man never served in the military. But never mind, he now is the United States Commander-in-Chief of the most well armed military in the world.

This man –unarguably–is supporting a bloodthirsty lunatic leader of a foreign country by sending weapons and money to him. With those U.S. made weapons and U.S. tax payer money, the recipient of such has, for eight months and counting, been bombing a literally defenseless population. With the world seeing this horrific situation play out in the modern age of social media, documenting tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed, close to half of them children, his presence at today’s observation honoring truly brave people who did make the world a safer place, is nauseating.

It is a bitter irony, lurking beneath the proper, reverent narrative of honoring those–as the saying goes–who gave some, and those who gave all–created by the presence of such a weak, morally hollow man. He is aiding to what even the United Nations considers a genocide. The commemoration of D-Day needs not include such an enemy of the literal peace and safety that such an enormous sacrifice provided.

Clearly, the safe, secure world that the Allied victory of WWII produced has been long ago disregarded as worth preserving. There are many other “dignitaries” who also are at the beach today who too should be kept away. I’m sure there are countless peoples around the world who have had any semblance of peace and safety taken from them by persons who have not a molecule of courage to use their positions of power and influence to regain and maintain what was–ever so briefly–a world of good over evil. May we never forget. At least for those of us who know of their sacrifice.