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Growing up surrounded by World War II veterans, most of whom refused to discuss their service fighting the horrid fascist enemies, as kids we turned to the movies to learn about war. The WWII Vets I knew did not brag about their “lethality,” or their “warrior ethos.” Most of them refused to talk about it at all, apparently regarding their service as at best a necessary evil, not something to celebrate. That was the difference between America’s great citizen soldiers and Nazi Germany’s warrior culture that elevated war to be the highest achievement.

In America, we watched movies where the evil Nazi U-Boat captain would surface his sub after sinking an Allied ship, and then grin while he ordered his crew to open fire on the survivors desperately clinging to wreckage in the roiling, often burning ocean. This was the stark difference between America’s heroic citizen soldiers and the murderous Nazi legions. America fought to liberate all humans from evil, Nazi legions lived to kill–even unarmed, unthreatening, defeated opponents. That was why America fought, to rid the........

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