1/ What made the leaders of WW2 so profound was that they viscerally knew the horrors of war. There was nothing about it that felt like a game with them. You get a sense of the depth of their grief that they had to send men to war.

2/ These words from FDR: "I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded . . . I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed . . . I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war."

3/ On the night before the D-Day invasion Eisenhower did what he often did: took a walk among the soldiers. He knew no matter whether he the invasion succeeded or failed, he was sending more men to their death in battle than had ever before died in a single military operation.

4/ He would say, "Are you scared, soldier?" And they would often say "Yes, Sir." Many of them put on war paint that night. Eisenhower would say to them "Just keep moving. That's the thing. Just keep moving." If you really think about those men today, it rips your heart to shreds.

That’s not true about World War II in any way. Hitler was the parasite who wanted to run everything. And even in what we now see as unjustified wars, the personal tragedy for the soldier who died was the same and deserves to be honored.