Memorial Day: Honoring Warriors and Stopping Wars

[Ed Hudgins]

Memorial Day: Honoring Warriors and Stopping Wars
By Edward Hudgins

May 27, 2016 -- On Memorial Day, Americans honor those who died in their country’s wars. But the key to stopping deaths in wars—and the wars that regimes wage on their own citizens—is victory in the war of ideas.

 

The casualties of war

The number of brave American soldiers who have died in war throughout the country’s history is sobering and appalling. The Civil War was the worst, with 630,000 dead. World War II saw over 400,000 Americans killed, followed by 116,000 in World War I, 58,000 in Vietnam, and 36,000 in Korea. For America, the price of freedom seems to be at least one and a quarter million lives and counting.

And freedom always seems to be under threat. Regimes today, as in the past, imprison, torture, and execute people for personal or religious beliefs, usually for just wanting to live their lives as they wish. The dead from dictatorial regimes surpass even the deaths in wars. The Chinese Communists caused the deaths of 60 million of their subjects. Soviet Communists killed at least 20 million. In addition to the 6 million Jews Hitler murdered, the Nazi regime systematically liquidated at least 4 million others such as gays and gypsies.

 

Memorial Day: The individuals behind the numbers

Memorial Day in America is important because it goes beyond such numbers, reminding us that each of these deaths is of an individual. Some took up arms at Lexington and Concord. Some stormed the beaches of Normandy. Some fought al Qaida in Afghanistan. A billion tears of family and friends have been shed over these honored dead.

And the best way to honor them is to fight the real battle... (Continue reading here.)