What will it take to achieve national unity?

Americans observed Veterans Day on Nov. 11. We watched parades, waved flags, ate hot dogs and heard speeches about how much we owe those who have served in the nation’s military. It is well, good and appropriate that we took that opportunity to honor and thank our veterans, but we owe them so much more.

Veterans did not put their lives at risk just to get thanks and praise in some future ceremony. They did it to safeguard the American way of life for tomorrow’s generations — to preserve the system of government that has provided us the blessings of liberty since the American experiment began in 1776.

Men and women who serve in the U.S. military are required to carry out their orders to the best of their ability. That is their role in this remarkable democracy, and they have fulfilled it in exemplary fashion, even in the most desperate circumstances — the landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, the bitter combat on Iwo Jima, the human wave assaults in sub-zero cold at Chosin Reservoir in Korea, the deadly Battle of Hue in South Vietnam, the second battle for Fallujah in Iraq and the desperate struggle at Kamdesh in Afghanistan.

Through it all, our military personnel did all that was asked of them, performing in an exceptional manner. They did not do it to bask in glory at some future Veterans Day. They were told their service was essential to protect America’s democracy, even at the cost of their very lives. Many paid that ultimate price, thinking that preservation of our self-governed union was well worth the cost.

Americans returning from the battlefields of World War II must have felt a great sense of accomplishment. They had worked as one with the folks at home to defeat the Axis powers and save the world from tyranny.

The American public was certainly thankful for what they had done. As a teenager in the 1950s, I remember having great pride in them and thinking that with people like our G.I.s, there was nothing the United States of America could not do. The idea of being part of a unified, winning team was exhilarating and gave promise of a bright future.

It is hard to contemplate the severe emotional trauma those veterans would have suffered if they had known that a future U.S. president would be enthralled with autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping, heartless killers much like the dictators they were protecting Americans from in World War II. Or that the same president had employed the “Big Lie” technique, which had been perfected by those earlier despots, in a desperate attempt to maintain his grasp on power. Or that a major purveyor of public commentary and its spokespeople would now be spewing out favorable drivel about the world’s autocrats to compliant audiences.

Quite frankly, this veteran is disgusted with the behavior that has been exhibited by that former president and many of his adoring followers for the last several years, leading up to the ugly, divisive election campaign that culminated on Nov. 8. If we can’t, as a nation, behave much better than that, the service of our veterans will have largely been in vain.

If we take seriously our obligation to honor those who have risked their lives to protect and preserve the American system, each and every one of us must stay better informed on the issues of critical importance to the nation. That means breaking free of spoon-fed “news” by propaganda outlets. It means keeping tabs on our elected officials and calling them out when they involve themselves in false claims or conspiracy theories. It means requiring our public schools to double down on civics education so that we can have a better informed public. And it means making it easier, not harder, for citizens to exercise their right to vote. Those steps would go a long way to realizing the goals that America’s veterans put their lives at risk to attain.

From the standpoint of one of the millions who have served in the nation’s armed forces, what I would most like to see is a nation at peace with itself, much like the nation that returning veterans of World War II found. If those who served the country can work together in common purpose to fight an enemy on foreign soil, is it too much to ask that the people of this country try a little harder to achieve unity on the home front?

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho attorney general (1983-1991) and 12 years as a justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He is a regular contributor to The Hill.