This is one of Ms Wente's more nuanced pieces and I enjoyed it.

World War One had nothing to do with freedom and a great deal to do with the collapse of the European order and the inability of Europe's leaders to reconcile their differences. Millions paid the price and their sacrifice was not for freedom per se, but rather to show the rest of us that we must never follow blindly.  World War Two, at least, had a very clear right and a very clear wrong.

Soldiers make terrible sacrifices for us and we must never forget that, however their sacrifice does not automatically mean that the war that led to their deaths was right or just despite strenuous efforts in certain quarters to do so.  That was as true in Flanders as it was in Kandahar and we need to be able to see past the sacrifice lexicon and see these events for what they were.