Via VodkaPundit
Veterans, teenagers and history:

On the eve of D-Day ceremonies, an association dedicated to the memory of Saint-Lô as it was before the destruction of the city organized a debate in the local theater involving two veterans, survivors of the bombing of the city and high school students aged 15 to 17.

The title of the debate, suggested by questions from the students, was "The Battle of Normandy, Invasion or Liberation?" It was the first troubling sign of the deterioration of the knowledge and understanding of the past.

The questions from the students were even worse. It was clear they were reading D-Day through the filter of Iraq. Their conversation with the survivors of the bombing of the city was most revealing. How could you welcome Americans as liberators, asked the young boys and girls, after they had reduced your city to ashes? Because "it was a sacrifice for France," replied their elders, shocked by the question.

Of course I wasn't alive when it happened... but I have read the famous quote... and I'm reminded of it here. When President Charles de Gaulle ordered all U.S. troops out of France in 1966, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk asked, "Does that include the dead Americans in military cemeteries as well?" These stories are actually starting to make me sick.