AOG, I am unsure of your age, but i know you are among the more senior of our community.
For the average person though, the wars are history, and have no personal connection. You'd need to be in your mid-eighties to have seen active service in WWII, so for a generation, this is an abstract concept, as is the respect and memory of those who served and died.
For them, the concept of a memorial is not valid compared with easy scrap metal there for the taking - sad I know, but true.
I would hasten to add that I only ofer this as an explanation - certainly not as a justification.