Devil's Advocate

D-Day: Day of Co-operation

Jun 6, 2013, 7:15 PM

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Today is the anniversary of D-Day for Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of Northwest Europe in 1944.

There are a lot of reasons to remember D-Day. Today I choose to invite you to remember one in particular.

I assess Operation OVERLORD to be the single greatest endeavour undertaken by humans, ever. Hundreds of thousands of people co-operated, many at the cost of their own lives, to make OVERLORD succeed.

It is unfortunate that it took a bunch of filthy Nazis to bring so many people together. It is unfortunate that, as a result, what we came together to do was mostly kill people.

What OVERLORD shows nonetheless is that humans can achieve great things if we work together.

You would be a worthy heir to Alanbrooke and the others who brought this operation together if you could envision a project so worthwhile that it could again bring so many together to expend so many resources in making it succeed.

About the Author

Dr Lynette Nusbacher is a strategist and devil's advocate. She is Principal at Nusbacher & Associates, a strategy consultancy. She has been a senior national security official in the United Kingdom, was Senior Lecturer in War Studies at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and served as a military intelligence officer.