Memorial Day Marks 250 Years Since U.S. Founding

Two hundred fifty years ago this summer, the Founding Fathers created a new nation, the Washington Examiner reported. U.S. military service. It states that America's existence resulted from battles at Lexington and Concord and later conflicts.

During the Revolution, an estimated 25,000 Americans died, according to the editorial. More than 600,000 died in the Civil War. The two World Wars together claimed more than half a million American lives. In the half-century struggle against communism, tens of thousands of Americans died in Korea and Southeast Asia.

More than 7,500 Americans have been killed in the fight against Islamist terrorism since 2001.

The editorial notes that the United States now faces the prospect of conflict with China for the first time since the mid-nineteenth century. It also states that Washington confronts an alliance of nuclear-armed powers including China, Russia, and North Korea. " The piece concludes that honoring the military dead requires continued effort to maintain the country's institutions.