Lessons From The Great Raid

I just got home from seeing the movie, The Great Raid. It's a good (not great) movie about great men and an incredible accomplishment. The film, based on a true story, chronicles the rescue of 511 American POWs from a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines. While the movie itself will never be confused with Saving Private Ryan, its release is well timed, in my opinion, to give our nation a psychological boost when our international leftist enemies are trying to convince us that we are nothing more than a war mongering empire led by dumb cowboy.

In the movie we are reminded of the Bataan Death March, where thousands of American and Filipino troops were killed by their Japanese captors. We see the deplorable conditions under which American POWs were held and we witness the contempt the Japanese had for the conquered Filipino people.

It's good to collectively remember these things, especially with all of the recent media coverage about the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must remember that this was not a war we chose. And our enemies did not treat us as we treated them. Sound familiar?

Today, our country's enemies espouse moral relativism, making us out to be no better than the imperialist Japanese and the Nazis of last century or Islamofascists we are currently fighting.

I highly recommend this movie, not for the acting and Hollywood story twists, but as that reminder about what makes our country great and what separates us from those who refuse to see evil, even when plainly confronted by it. It also reaffirms what Tom Brokaw taught us, that the Americans who fought WWII were in fact The Greatest Generation. May we have their strength and instestinal fortitude to do what is right, as painful as it may be sometimes.

God Bless America.