You can
both commemorate the bravery of men who made great sacrifices in a war and at the same time disapprove of the political decisions that led to the war or to particular actions in that war.
The issues are totally separate. Commemorating the men does not necessarily endorse the actions.
It's also important to bear in mind what constitutes "justified" action very much depends on who won war. Here are Robert McNamarra's (US Secretary for Defense under Kennedy and Johnson) controversial comments about the fire bombing on Tokyo that killed 100,000 civilians in one night during the time McNamarra was serving in the XXI Bomber Command under Curtis Lemay.
Quote:
|
We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo – men, women, and children… [U.S. General] Lemay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost … But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win? LeMay said ‘if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals’. And I think he’s right – and I’d say – we were behaving as war criminals. (Robert S. McNamara to interviewer Errol Morris, The Fog of War).
|