Celebration of sacrifice

Sixty years ago, the Allies celebrated May 8 as "Victory in Europe Day," and exactly when to continue remembering the capitulation of Nazi Germany became the only real uncertainty about how World War II ended on the Continent.

Technically, Gen. Alfred Jodl, the German army chief of staff, signed the document of surrender on May 7 at 2:41 a.m., French time, in a schoolhouse at Reims, France. The time in Washington was 8:41 p.m. May 6. Americans chose May 8 then because it allowed time for proper celebration, of which there was much. Subsequent generations could have argued for May 6 or 7 and have been historically accurate. But having rid the world of Hitler and ended five years and eight months of genocide, death and destruction, there was hardly reason to quibble over details.

Americans are facing very different warfare today. Terrorists do not show up at schoolhouses willing to sign documents of surrender. Al-Qaeda generals do not submit to disarmament. Insurgents in Iraq do not wear uniforms and line up on battlefields. The enemy is as fanatical as the Nazi zealots but suicidal and clandestine. Young legions of anti-American forces feeding on hatred and poverty are growing across the world to reinforce the terrorist armies already in place. The United States finds itself waging an open-ended war without boundaries against an invisible opponent with only nebulous measures of success. How will we recognize victory when we attain it, assuming we do?

World War II and the battle against terrorism both began with seminal events that galvanized the nation: Pearl Harbor and 9/11. But Americans stayed united throughout World War II, never questioning their sacrifices or the righteousness of the cause. Today, with support for the Iraq War eroding and casualties mounting, much of the nation wonders what Iraq has to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center and what the country will look like when we leave. Last week, former CIA Director George Tenet said that he regretted saying that he had "slam-dunk" evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. "Those were the two dumbest words I ever said," Mr. Tenet says now. There were no miscalculations of purpose 60 years ago. There was no questioning the reasons for great sacrifice.

There were 12 million refugees and homeless people in Europe on the first V-E Day, and the U.S. turned quickly from combat to reconstruction. By the war's end with Japan's surrender four months later, 405,399 Americans had lost their lives and 671,278 came home wounded. This will be the last V-E Day for many World War II veterans, who are dying at the rate of about 1,000 per day. Their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of those who did not survive, helped spread democracy to places that never had known it. The nation and the world always will be grateful for their gift of freedom.