65 years ago President Truman dropped a whoopee cushion in Emperor Hirohito’s underwear. Between August 6th and August 15th, Japan’s vision of hemispheric domination was atomized and World War II ground to a halt.
WWII left a legacy of mayhem and violence, documented by thousands of wrenching images. The nine days in August 1945 added its own iconography: the mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the formal surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri.
Earlier this year another iconic event passed 65 – the US Marines capture of the island of Iwo Jima. Iwo is recalled for its strategic importance, because it was a major stepping-stone in an initiative to blunt Japan's ambitions.
In February 1945 the US military saturated Iwo with air and naval firepower. Days later, the Marines landed to begin an up-close battle with a heavily-entrenched Japanese army. After four days of combat, five Marines and a Navy corpsman broke through ranks to scale the highest peak on the island and valiantly erected one of the iconic images of the war: the raising of the Stars-and-Stripes atop Mt. Suribachi.
7,000 US Marines gave their lives to take Iwo Jima. 18,000 more were wounded. These selfless acts made possible the defeat of an aggressor, and, more importantly, preserved continued freedom and liberty for future generations of Americans.
65 years later, on another island, Manhattan, Americans enjoying the freedoms that others died to preserve have taken the astonishing step to permit an invading horde of fanatics to raise their symbol of victory on hallowed WTC grounds!
65 is an iconic number. It denotes the age of retirement when workers are put out to pasture. Seems that memories are retired at 65 as well. Seems that Iwo Jima now is just a fading anecdote. How quickly we forget. How else to explain the Ground Zero Mosque?
Say it ain't so!
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