Today is the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. On this single day in 1944 over 6,600 US soldiers were killed on the beaches and drop zones of Normandy. This does not include the other US soldiers that were killed on the same day in the air war over Germany, or on the ground in Italy, or by U-boats in the North Atlantic, or fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.
Today we are approaching 3,500 dead US soldiers in Iraq after more than 4 years of fighting. I don't want to down play the importance of the the war in Iraq, or the sacrifices being made by American soldiers there every day, but I think it is important remember our history, and to understand the scale of the sacrifices made by "the greatest generation".