“Does the lack of commemoration of World War II anniversaries reflect growing embarrassment about the great Allied victory”
Not in australia, it doesn’t. Heck – our national day of remembrance commemorates a _defeat_ and we’re still proud of it (no, I’m not being sarcastic – I have no problem with it). Vietnam is still a sticking point – but for the most part I think australians see the outcome of the WW’s in a pretty positive light.
glenn -
“Absolutely no need to remind anyone about the stupidity and fecklessness of Neville Chamberlin and the self appointed “Best and Brightest” of the British political establishment in the 1930’s. Too many historical parallels.”
Er, no. Not self-appointed, they were elected. Chamberlain made a mistake, to be sure. But he wasn’t alone. The embarrassing reality of the appeasement policy is that it was the majority position. Most of the anti-nazi sentiment (and anti-japanese, down this way) was coming from the left, and they were out of power. Which emphasizes why churchill was such an important figure. He stuck his neck out and faced off against his own political allies to push for a very unpopular war. He even had to struggle to convince the US to back him.
