Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- June 6, 2014

D-Day Was The Largest And One Of The Bloodiest Invasions In History -- James A. Warren, Daily Beast

The Allied invasion of Europe that culminated in D-Day took two years to plan and still nearly foundered on the bloody beaches of Normandy.

No military operation in history has exercised so great a hold on the collective imagination of Americans as the D-Day landings in Normandy, France. Omaha Beach, where thousands of acts of individual valor and initiative transformed an impending disaster into a bloody triumph, is as sacred a piece of ground to Americans as any place on earth, including Gettysburg or Plymouth Rock.

Just two hours after the initial landings at 6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944, the intensity of fire from well over 100 well-dug-in Wehrmacht machine guns and antitank weapons positioned in the bluffs behind the beach shut down the landings, leaving the early waves of assault troops stranded with little cover and only a handful of Sherman tanks. Most of the specially designed amphibious behemoths, along with other combat vehicles and heavy weapons, had sunk in the rough surf en route to the beach. Many infantry in the first waves drowned, having disembarked from their landing craft in water over their heads. The preliminary naval and air bombardments had utterly failed to reduce the German strongpoints. “I gained the impression,” recalled the American general in command of the landing, “that our forces had suffered an irreversible catastrophe.”

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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials

Five Ways D-Day Could Have Been a Disaster -- Michael Peck, National Interest

Why D-Day Will Never Happen Again -- Michael Peck, War Is Boring

Has Europe forgotten the lessons of D-Day? -- Sara Miller Llana, CSM

One message from Normandy -- Christian Science Monitor editorial

D-Day remembered: How FDR reacted on June 6, 1944 -- Peter Grier, CSM

In Russian protege Abkhazia, a cautionary tale for Crimea -- Maria Tsvetkova, Reuters

Obama's Crumbling Syria Facade -- Michael Weiss, NOW

Syria’s jihadis are coming home to roost -- Matthew Levitt, National Post

D-Day remembered: How FDR reacted on June 6, 1944 -- Heather Murdoch, Christian Science Monitor

Five Reasons China Won't Be A Big Threat To America's Global Power -- Loren Thompson, Forbes

Exclusive: Egypt turns to Western advisers, signaling possible reforms - sources -- Maggie Fick, Stephen Kalin and Sophie Sassard, Reuters

War of words on BNP Paribas reaches a roar -- Financial Times

The Meaning of Treason -- New York Sun editorial

Obama’s master … mistake: behind the Bergdahl bungle -- John Podhoretz, New York Post

Sgt. Bergdahl: Free him, then try him -- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post