On the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day, a blog from a fellow historian has me wondering about how we communicate to the next generation the meaning of war and conflict. How do we show them that there is a process to determine whether or not a war is needed or just wanted?

Explaining World War II and D-Day is relatively easy… good versus evil. Nazis, Imperialists, and Fascists wanted to rule the world. D-Day began the final crusade to destroy the evil. But how does that translate to today? Or does it?

And when looking for a single moment to define the idea of war and sacrifice, what can we see?