Second World War (WWII)

Quoting Romans 12:20, the message to feed and help the enemy is simple, but oftentimes the simplest command can be the hardest to fulfill. So the reminder is always timely in every age.

In his book “A World Safe for Democracy,” John Ikenberry writes an impassioned defense of liberal internationalism and the international order it helped to create.

America remains the world leader. This fact is naïve to reject and realistic to accept. It is the American Century still.

The Friends of the National World War II Memorial recently announced the charity had received a $2-million grant that will allow the inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer on the memorial site.

We comfort ourselves, saying, “This is not who we are.” But without deeper reflection, such pat answers are lies, strengthening the “vulgarized knowledge” that allow us to ignore the chasms that threaten to consume us.

Christmas alone is perfectly congruous, for Christmas brings to the surface those imperishable values for which men in all this struggle of power are really groping. It focuses men’s thoughts, at least for the moment, upon the secret of ultimate power.

Reinhold Niebuhr in 1945: “For only a full understanding of the practically insuperable difficulties which confront us can arm us with the humility and the courage to seek for a solution of this problem radical enough to prevent the annihilation of civilization.”

There is no more dismal aspect of human history than the behavior of victors. However just their cause, they never fail to cast doubt upon its righteousness by the manner in which they exploit their victory.

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations released “Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions,” by Special Rapporteur Prof. Dr. Agnès S. Callamard, which holds that the successful drone strike in January killing Gen. Soleimani violated international law.