The new documentary "The War", by Ken Burns, exhausts me... not because it's too long or dull. It's exhausting because it is SO honest, SO good, SO intense, SO sad, and SO intimidating. These next-door, average 1940's Americans - insurance salesmen, farmers, mothers, and children - were put in the position of becoming overnight warriors. Some managed to live, some managed to hold their spirits and minds together, and some did not. One quarter of all the combat soldiers had temporary or permanent psychosis brought on by the stress of what they had to do and what they saw. NO ONE walked away unscarred. NO ONE.

Nor does anyone say they think THEIR actions were wrong. It was BAD, it was HELL... but the WAR was not wrong. BOTH the Nazis and the Imperialist Japanese HAD to be stopped. Their goals were to dominant the entire planet and purify "THE" race. They had no intentions of backing off.

They had extermination, political, and economic plans for ALL the countries by the time they entered them. Their plans for the U.S. were complete by 1943-44. The Japanese believed all races and religions of Americans (and all others on the planet) were sub-human. The Germans planned on allowing the Aryan-related whites to survive, but would use them as slave labor for the German UberRace. That means you wouldn't exist, or, YOU, your parents, your Grandparents, your children, and everyone you've known would NOW be the 3rd, 4th, or 5th generation of slaves for them. You would know no other life... not even by rumor. And, you would NOT be reading this now. You would NOT have a computer. Why would you want a computer? You live in the mud, you don't know how to read, and you see no reason to have that ability. Plus, you'd be executed if you were found trying. Why make things worse for yourself?

You'd know sunrise-to-sunset labor, exhaustion, hunger, thirst, beatings, sterilization, disease, and eventual execution. You'd watch other slaves be tortured, raped, and beheaded. It would not shock you - you'd simply notice. You'd live a short, miserable life one way or another. Death would be welcome by then anyhow.

If you think ANY of this is an exaggeration or fiction, do your own homework. You know how to read.

THEN ask yourself who you take for granted.