[Wayfare]

First off, where is the evidence that soldiers were lined up in trenches to see how many would go blind? Not some website, evidence please? More importantly, the second part of your quote:

"or on the beaches of europe having wave after wave get gunned down untill the bodies piled up enough on the razor wire so others could get through. i didnt see any officers leading those parades."

Ray, what in you talking about in terms of officers not leading the men at Omaha beach? CO's and NCO's were the ones in the field leading those men onto the beach, and actually died in a higher percentage compared to the enlisted men they led. Obviously you can't have generals leading the first wave due to their strategic importance, but plenty of brave officers went in with their men.

Also, it was not the "piles of bodies" on the razor wire which helped the men get through places like Omaha beach. It was the percentage of them that got past the beach to the shingle and helped flank the defensive emplacements. There was a massive ship-bound artillery bombardment proceeding the battle, as well as flybys by Marauder bombers and parachute drops designed to hamper / disrupt the defenses. At every beach except Omaha did those measures prove successful in creating a relatively safe landing.

Any careful study of WWII will contradict almost everything you wrote in your post. Instead of pure cynacism towards the politicians that lead our country into military action, we should remember that at the time of the events in question, Adolf Hitler ruled Europe and was not planning on giving it up without a fight. Those in power had to make difficult decisions, and every possible outcome involved the unavoidable death of brave men. Don't confuse the present situation with the real dangers we faced fifty years ago. Vietnam, Iraq, and WWII are not the same no matter how much equivocation you want to heap upon them.