Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from America, Canada, and Britain trained and rehearsed their roles in the largest and most complex military operation in human history. More than 5,000 vessels brought the assault force across the English Channel to land on the Normandy coast in the early morning of June 6, 1944.

During the night before troops landed on the coast, some 17,000 American and British paratroopers dropped to the ground behind the German beach positions, to secure the beach exits and diminish German forces’ ability to counter attack.

At 3:00 AM, gliders carrying heavier equipment  and reinforcements began to arrive in the area. The paratroopers who had landed earlier were able to secure the immediate area for landing, but were unable to silence the German anti-aircraft guns.  As a result, the tow planes were forced to climb and release at a higher altitude – making the gliders even more vulnerable.  The enormous, fence-like hedgerows that crisscrossed the countryside made glider landing especially treacherous.   As a result, glider casualties were extremely high.

In one day, amphibious vessels landed some 130,000 troops on five beaches along 50 miles of the Normandy coast between the Cotentin Peninsula and the Orne River. Allied air forces controlled the skies overhead.  The first troops landed on the beaches at about six AM.

German resistance was most deadly at the beach code-named Omaha. When the first wave landed at 6:30 a.m., the men found that naval gunfire and bombing that were supposed to “soften up” German defenses had been ineffective and largely missed German positions. Obstacles erected on the narrow strip of beach, and German machine guns firing from the bluffs overlooking the beach pinned the assault troops down at the water’s edge for most of the morning of D-Day. Finally, a few at a time, incredibly brave men sprinted across the beach and made their way up to the top of the bluffs where they destroyed the German firing positions.

An accurate count of casualties was not possible in the chaos of D-Day combat, but there are authoritative estimates. In April and May of 1944 Allied Air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in bombing operations against German infrastructure. On D-Day itself, an estimated 1,465 Americans were killed and 3,184 were wounded.

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The Normandy American Cemetery, near Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer,

The Final Resting Place of 9,386 American heroes

Sadly, American culture has changed dramatically since 1944 and Presidents no longer pray in public for fear of a tsunami of sanctimonious blow-back from the ever vigilant harpys of “separation of church and state.”

We could repeat most of Roosevelt’s prayer today, as American troops sweat and bleed in a dozen places around the world to keep us safe from the forces of Islamic Terrorism. Here’s an excerpt:

…these [troops] are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. they fight to end conquest. they fight to liberate. they fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all thy people.

Newt Gingrich put together this video, a recording of FDR’s radio announcement and prayer over a series of still photos from D-Day, the World War II Memorial, Iraq and Afghanistan
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While the American soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen of 1945 lacked many of the technological advantages today’s troops have, they did have one major advantage that has been denied the courageous men and women serving in Iraq: A united Congress, committed to nothing less than total victory.

In 1944 no US Senator announced to the world – including the enemy – that the war was lost, as Majority Leader Harry Reid did last year, just as US troops arrived in Iraq to launch the spectacularly successful, counter-insurgency operation known as The Surge. There was a Presidential election campaign in 1944. But there was no candidate running on a promise to abandon the effort, throw away all the hard won gains, and retreat, as Barack Obama now promises, if he is elected.

It’s hard to imagine anything more disastrous than what Barack Obama will do to the volunteer military if he is elected and actually goes through with his promise to abandon Iraq to Al Qaeda and the other assorted thugs, insurgents, and Iranian-backed militias, who have largely been defeated and subdued by this magnificent counter-insurgency operation.

It has been over a year since the media bothered to report reenlistment rates. Why? Because reenlistments have been high, and all branches of the military have met or exceeded their quotas. The American media bury anything that could be interpreted as good news associated in any way with Iraq.

What would happen to the reenlistment rate if hundreds of thousands of men and women who have served in Iraq were given the message that the blood and sweat and years of their lives they poured into that effort were for nothing? Why would that happen? Because five years ago, when he was an obscure State Senator, would-be President Obama opposed the decision to liberate Iraq from Saddam and his maniacal sons.

Senator Obama has based his entire campaign on the claim that his opposition to liberating Iraq and birthing a consensual government in the heart of the Middle East is all the proof he needs to demonstrate that his “judgment” is superior to that of his adversaries. Thus, if the men and women of the US military ultimately succeed in transforming Iraq into a peaceful democracy and US ally, their accomplishment would cast doubt on his so-called “judgment” and injure his fragile ego.