War is as Necessary Today as it Always has Been

As time ticks on towards the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings on June 6th 2014, I wonder how many veterans of that war view events of today? How technology, so important in WW11, has continued to refine and evolve the nature of warfare. Long, long gone are the days of armies facing each other for a deadly and bloody slog to the finish. No. Today’s warfare in its highest form is against an unrecognisable enemy whose adversaries twiddle delicate knobs on sophisticated devices somewhere in Arizona to cause mayhem in a foreign and distant land, and then go home for lunch. A sort of gaming. but with real players and unseen intermediaries.

As always men remain on the ground, and they are our real heros. Days of physically uncomfortable boredom bisected by frenetic, fearful and shocking activity.

Meanwhile touring In the gentle fields of Normandy continues unabated. Pleasant pastures and beaches belie the horror of what went on all those years ago. Our dear French cousins do their best not to commercialise the area. There are no D-Day Theme Parks, Hitler Rides or Eisenhower Burgers to be found anywhere. Disney has not arrived.

Long will it continue. We may defer our visit, but those who rest in the Cemeteries will always be there as an indelible reminder to those who visit of our freedom to do so.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke, 1729-1797.

True today as it was then.