Wars are fought to testify to the truth of a society's sacred ideal. That for which we die, we imagine, must be true. Death in battle constitutes a validation function.

Memorials that nations erect function to remind us of the truth for which soldiers died. If so many human beings gave their lives for an idea or entity, we imagine, it must be real; it must be true.

This hypothesis applies equally to the wars brought into existence by Adolf Hitler...and Abraham Lincoln.