Commemorations taking place this week of the Korean conflict offer much upon which to reflect as we levy the war in Iraq. The communist attack in the Korean conflict was triggered, at least in part, by a blunder of the American leadership, when secretary of state for the Truman administration, Dean Acheson, suggested in January 1949, that our defense perimeter didn’t extend to the Korean Peninsula. The Reds mistook that as a sign we lacked will. Something to remember for those who suggest that America’s vital interests don’t extend to the Euphrates.

Korea’s cost in American blood was astounding and humbling. Some 34,000 GIs died in Korea, and before the fighting was halted by the armistice, some 4 million persons, on both sides, including civilians and combatants, perished. These numbers dwarf anything being seen with the kinds of tactics America’s modern military has by now learned how to use, though great numbers perished in Iraq while the world shrank from the fight.

It is well to remember about Korea that early in the fighting, America took a terrible drubbing. For bitterness and sacrifice, the retreat from the Chosun Reservoir rivaled Valley Forge. Yet America managed to gather its will and its strength, with Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway carrying the forces forward to liberate Seoul in March 1951. The communist onslaught was stopped at what is now the demilitarized zone and an armistice was brought into effect.

This did not end the war, but began in the north a long travail that has seen millions trapped under one of the most brutal communist dictatorships. In the south, the building of a democratic government took a long time, with many ups and downs. Yet the labor of the Korean people themselves was heroic, and today they have a nation and government that is the envy of the developing world.

Sadly, the past generation had the memory of Korea tarnished by the anti-war television series about an American medical unit called “M*A*S*H.” But this week we are pausing to remind ourselves that it is difficult to overstate the heroism of the American fighting men who carried the battles of the Korean war. And of the Koreans who fought and died for freedom from communist oppression. Their example is one that will endure and inspire generations to come, including our own as we pursue the goal of freedom and democracy in Iraq.