Dunno about that Little Hawk. I don't know that the Germans in WWII would have put it that they were fighting for freedom.

And i think it would have been far better if the Germans, English, French and Belgians of WWI had disdained battlefield bravery and queried what that war was all about and destined to achieve.

I think I understand your desire to honor all fallen soldiers, but I think it overlooks two separate issues:

Issue One: Often the difference between the fallen and the survivers is a matter of inches or split seconds. If someone fell in the first hour of the Battle of the Bulge, that person's suffering was far less than another who endured all the shelling and maybe lost a limb. so if you're of a mind to honor the fallen, you should also honor the living who took their share of the risk and burden. They are still with us, still carrying their scars outside and in.

Issue Two: I don't copy you on the moral equivalency of all sides, if only in their own minds. Of course I'm glad you make it clear that you're glad the Allies won, but I do not think that a black American is going to honor the Confederate Flag no matter how nobly and bravely men fought for it. As Grant said about the meeting at Appomatox: "I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us."

Another great war movie, with not a trace of blood, that I grew up with was "Mister Roberts" which I think is a great tribute to difficulties of life faced by men in the service who are not asked to face blood and flame, but something that may be even tougher, boredom.

A really good war movie, "Blackhawk Down" has a line in it about how when bullets start flying, you're in there doing it for your buddies, which I think rings true.

Mark Twain had a line about the difference between morally brave men and women, and distinguishes it from the physically brave, "which can be had by the cartload."

So I lose no sleep over dead Germans and dead Japanese of WWII, but am perfectly willing to honor the Germans living and dead if any of the Peacekeeping units in Yugoslavia, and the Japanese who have gone to Iraq.