D-Day, June 6. I have never witnessed a World War II memorial that did not contain subliminal messages, planted by the arms manufacturers and their media propagandists, about the glory of “The Good War” ["History, politics can’t keep Putin away from D-Day observance," Nation and World, June 4]
World War II was not good. No war is good. World War II killed more than 60 million people. Half a million U.S. soldiers left the battlefield with post traumatic stress disorder, mentally broken. Gen. George Patton called them cowards.
By the end, the U.S. was committing horrific acts against civilian populations. We dropped atomic bombs on cities, not military bases. Our firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo killed more civilians than the atomic bombs. In Tokyo, we killed 100,000 in one night.
Now we feed a new generation the pablum of military glory. This human body is a sacred gift. There is never glory where men tear each other’s flesh to shreds. I pray that all might have the dazed broken courage of Bowe Bergdahl, the courage to walk away from war.
Fred LaMotte, Steilacoom