Unfortunately, no society is able to rest on the laurels of the noble actions of past generations. It certainly is not an excuse for a current generation that had no hand in the victories of the past to then sully that glory with war crimes and atrocities of its own. All that does is bring the whole glory thing down a notch and make folks start to destroy once-beloved monuments and to even question the greatness of the past as a fluke of History. Likewise, present generations should not be held to account for atrocious actions in the distant past they had nothing to do with and fully condemn.