D-Day, Reagan, and The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc

I can't think of a better way to commemorate today, D-Day, than to watch the Gipper's speech from this day in 1984. What remains relevant to today is our purpose and motive for fighting evil:

"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt."

Today I'll be thinking not just of all the people from my parents' generation who fought in WWII, but of all the people who have served in the U.S. military.