In the midst of talk about the war on terrorism and Iraq, the November elections and J-Lo's latest marriage, it is easy to forget how the country got here.
Anniversaries help that. They give us a reason to reflect, think about why an event is important and ponder how such events apply to our lives. History really can help.
Sixty years ago Sunday, the D-Day invasion began on the beaches of Normandy. This weekend, Kevin Smith, assistant chairman of the Department of History, pointed out four aspects of D-Day that made it so remarkable: responsibility, intelligence, sacrifice and commitment. RISC.
"There is risk in any great conflict," Smith said.
There is also responsibility. General Eisenhower wrote a memorandum accepting all responsibility for D-Day if it was a failure.
"We yearn for a situation where people take responsibility for their actions," Smith said.
The work of the intelligence community was so great in World War II that the United States was able to trick the German army into thinking that the Allies were landing somewhere else. U.S. officials were also able to know that the Germans took that bait.
"You have to have effective intelligence," Smith said.
When the soldiers landed in Normandy, they were sacrificing their lives for something that did not directly affect them.
"Americans by the thousands went into France and put everything on the line," Smith said.
The commitment Smith refers to deals with the country's willingness to see things through to the end.
"We made a commitment to finish the job, and we carried it through," Smith said.
Applying Smith's principles to today's world, we see at least one point alive and well. Sixty years after D-Day, we still have men, and now women, who are willing to put their lives on the line for a fight that isn't theirs. For that, the soldiers who are in Iraq today should be honored 60 years from now.
Meanwhile, the country should take a long hard look at the other three points. One, intelligence, is already being reviewed. The last, commitment, everyone should be reminded of. Once our military begins its work, it has to be allowed to finish it, or it makes the situation worse.
The first though, is painfully absent in today's world. The country yearns for a leader to take responsibility for his actions. There is too much passing of the buck in Washington, D.C., in both parties.
If the country take the time to look back at history's successes, it won't commit one of history's greatest mistakes.
That's what history has to do with us.
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