Harry’s Place

I doubt the last bit, Sarkoz has already promised more troops for Afghanistan.
If he could charm Merkel into letting the German troops go out after dark it would be worthwile.

PS
Gene, I’ve money on Biden to be VP.
Am I a fool?

Gene, I’ve money on Biden to be VP.
Am I a fool?

If I were a betting man, that’s where my money would be.

I’m afraid Obama’s tour is likely to be overshaddowed by the whirling ball of charisma that is our dear PM visiting Iraq. O-who-a? Look look its Gordon!

And what’s so special about Obama? Oh yes, change, change for the better or worse? Let’s see higher taxes, trade protectionism, higher minimum wage e.t.c FDR’s 1930’s re-hashed Great Depression era policies, and we all know how that turned out don’t we???

What is the point of this ridiculous post? The only thing much-anticipated is the fawning and uncritical media coverage that this tour is likely to receive.

The interesting question is just how supine the American media (and the BBC) will be in their wall-to-wall coverage:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/17/america/17anchors.php

HP is very good in its coverage of British affairs, but the coverage from the US seems to revolve around press releases from the Obama campaign. No doubt Gene will be keeping us up to date with more on interesting subjects such as how many people turned out to watch the greatest political opportunist since WJC.

Gene, I’ve money on Biden to be VP.
Am I a fool?

Neil Kinnock will be pleased at the prospect of being brought out of retirement.

At least Biden is reasonably sound on foreign policy.

I think this captures the spirit of the trip.

You have some competition, Gene.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/time_publishes_definitive_obama

Mmm, the MSM really are falling over each other to crown him king already aren’t they ? Funny how it’s so often the same people who bitch about Fox taking a line who seem to think this is all fair dinkum.

Gene, why do you suppose Barack Obama asked not Joe Biden, but Senator Chuck Hagel to accompany him on his tour?

It wouldn’t be because Biden may be considered not anti-Israel enough/too pro-Israel for both Obama’s foreign audiences (except in Israel) and for the Walt and Mearsheimer contingent of the Democratic Party, would it?

Did Prime Minister al-Maliki just cut the heart out of John McCain’s campaign?

Er, looks like Maliki just proved that John McCain’s courageous support for the troop surge was spot on, and also that those who supported the removal of Saddam have been vindicated.

Now which Presidential Candidate opposed both the intervention and tried to block the surge? Oops.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,566852,00.html
So far the Americans have had trouble agreeing to a concrete timetable for withdrawal, because they feel it would appear tantamount to an admission of defeat. If we come to an agreement, it is not evidence of a defeat, but of a victory, of a severe blow we have inflicted on al-Qaida and the militias….

Saddam waged wars against Iran and Kuwait, and against Iraqis in the north and south of his own country, wars in which hundreds of thousands died. And he was capable of instigating even more wars. Yes, the casualties are great, but I see our struggle as an enormous effort to avoid other such wars in the future.

According to the Time reporter, work on the profile was often harder than he had anticipated, with Obama at times dodging questions about whether or not he played a musical instrument, and about what Monopoly piece he thought best represented his candidacy and why.

Added Sherwood, “It’s all about getting the factoids out in the open.”

Ha ha

Actually, I think the Iraq developments may be bad news for the Obama camp. Polls show that if Bush said it’s shining outside, people will rush indoors to get out of the rain.

Bush is now saying that we need a timetable to withdraw from Iraq. That must mean it’s a bad idea. Obama is saying… well, we’ll see what Obama says when he gets back.

Regards,

Inna

It astounds me how the MSM glosses over all the aspects of Obama that would ensure he’ll be lucky to get 20% of the vote.

He’s a liar. He has changed his policies on a daily basis and has a wife who has only become proud of Amrica in the last six months. He denies his Muslim upbringing for political expediency and he has exhibited racist tendencies against White people.

Listen to USA radio about 2 hrs a day and its only the right-wing commentators who are exposing him.

He’s going to lose it on the last bend. Republicans have only just started their advertising campaign.

Gene, why do you suppose Barack Obama asked not Joe Biden, but Senator Chuck Hagel to accompany him on his tour?

It wouldn’t be because Biden may be considered not anti-Israel enough/too pro-Israel for both Obama’s foreign audiences (except in Israel) and for the Walt and Mearsheimer contingent of the Democratic Party, would it?

No, it wouldn’t.

Listen to USA radio about 2 hrs a day and its only the right-wing commentators who are exposing him.

Maven, it seems you think that satirical New Yorker cover hit the nail on the head. If your opinion of Obama is based on listening to two hours a day of rightwing talk radio, I can understand that.

If your opinion of Obama are based on listening to two hours a day of rightwing talk radio,

As opposed to the virtual deification of him by the MSM?

What next Gene, will you be saluting his strength, his courage, his indefatigability, until Washington DC?

Get your head out of Obama’s arse, Gene. Its pathetic.

Morgoth, you cannot tell Gene or anyone else what to do, you pathetic middle-class nobody (TM).

He has changed his policies on a daily basis and has a wife who has only become proud of Amrica in the last six months

No he doesn’t.

Morgoth, you cannot tell Gene or anyone else what to do

Drunk much of the Obamessiah’s Kool-Aid, Alec?

No he doesn’t.

Oh yes he has.

Morgoth–

This is one election in which everyone has to make up their own mind. There are waay too many issues with both candidates–which normally would not be such a big deal. They’re all politicians and we have survived far worse than either of them. But this just may be the most important election in my lifetime at least.

If Gene is certain that Obama is the right man for the job, I can only envy him his conviction.

Regards,

Inna

If Gene is certain that Obama is the right man for the job, I can only envy him his conviction.

What Gene is displaying is not conviction, but irrational blind faith, more suitable for following a football team rather than a politician.

As for the Obamessiah, I can only agree with John McCain on him:

My opponent, Senator Obama, announced his strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq before departing on a fact-finding mission that will include visits to both those countries. Apparently, he’s confident enough that he won’t find any facts that might change his opinion or alter his strategy. Remarkable.

This was Spencer Ackerman today on the Spiegel article, which, of course, Maliki’s now reputiated:

“The Iraq war is and has always been an obscenity, a filthy lie born of avarice and lust for power masquerading as virtue. This is what imperialism looks like. But the age of empire is over. The same hubris that led Bush into the Iraq disaster led him to miscalculate, again and again, over how to entrench it. But now he is impotent, unable to impose his will, and the nakedness of his attempted imposition has led the American and the Iraqi peoples to wake up and end his nightmare. May his war-crimes prosecutor be Iraqi; may his judge be American; and may he die in the Hague.”

Now that’s some postmodernism for you!

More here:

“Epitaph for Imperialism? Or, the Death of President Bush Foretold”:

http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/epitaph-for-imperialism-or-death-of.html

What Europe hates about America, apparently, is what it loves about America. Coke and cheeseburgers, Malibu Barbi and hip-hop; t & a, comic book and car crash movies; gifted hack machine politicians in well cut suits with with fingers to wind, declaiming nonsense like ‘we are the change we have been waiting for” and pledging ardent vacuous nothings about “change.”

We concealed-carrying, snake-dancing Americans know exactly who this guy is, and many of us will vote for him, on his true merits. And those of us who do will laugh, along with those of us who didn’t, at the niafs who swarmed him, on his European media tour.

“What Gene is displaying is not conviction, but irrational blind faith, more suitable for following a football team rather than a politician.”

No, I think Gene is displaying conviction that Obama is the best man for what will be an enormously difficult presidency.

And look–if it makes you feel any better, I personally am conviced that Whoever will win in November will be a one-term president.

Regards,

Inna

Morgoth,
What is it about McCain that appeals to you?

Inna you may be right.However,if the Republianc lose, I think a serious period of infighting may follow.

What is it about McCain that appeals to you?

He’s got the right policies on Iraq and on Iran. The Obamessiah’s equivalents are utterly disastrous.

A curiosity from Reuters:

The BAGHDAD item headlined “Iraqis say they like Obama, divided on his policies” is withdrawn. The story was transmitted in error.

McCain shifted his policy on both Iraq and Iran on Friday to move closer to Obamas.
Keep up.

Further update: the real powers that be in Iraq, i.e. the US, crack the whip when their client says the wrong thing. How can that have been a mistranslation/misunderstanding - its clear as day what he said.

make the “the Bush administration” not “the US”.

Anita S:
Let’s see higher taxes, trade protectionism, higher minimum wage e.t.c FDR’s 1930’s re-hashed Great Depression era policies, and we all know how that turned out don’t we???

They ended the Great Depression and made the US the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth.

Hang on, I’m not American, I don’t want that. Vote McCain!!!1!

Ibnaz:
Gene, why do you suppose Barack Obama asked not Joe Biden, but Senator Chuck Hagel to accompany him on his tour?

Isn’t it customary to have representatives from both parties on these tours? You did know Hagel’s a Republican, didn’t you?

Maven:
He’s a liar.

When has he lied?

(And given the claims you went on to make, what on Earth made you think that you could get away with calling anyone else a liar?)

He has changed his policies on a daily basis

As does McCain. As do almost all Presidential candidates. If he didn’t, he’d be Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich - a noble joke.

and has a wife who has only become proud of Amrica in the last six months.

Oh yes, let’s focus on the wives, shall we?

He denies his Muslim upbringing

He didn’t have a Muslim up-bringing.

for political expediency and he has exhibited racist tendencies against White people.

When? What?

Listen to USA radio about 2 hrs a day and its only the right-wing commentators who are exposing him.

Lying about someone, smearing them, making up complete and utter rubbish about them, is not exposing them - it’s exposing yourself.

Were Obama white, people would see how mediocre he really is.

In the minds of white liberals, however, skin colour appears to forgive all.

Obama does not inspire confidence, his political record….what little of it there is…. is just pathetic.

His flip-flops on a whole variety of issues means he really doesn’t have solid ideas, but rather chooses to just play it by ear.

The next four years are going to be extremely difficult for the U.S….probably the most critical four years of the past 50, and Obamessiah just doesn’t have what it takes to deal with that.

That said, I’m not particularly hot on McCain either. He may be a hawk and have more political experience, but at 71 he’s too damned old and dotty to do the job effectively.

Even Ronald Reagan was younger, having been inaugurated when still *only* 69.

One other thing, Gene’s slavish, true-believer devotion to Obama, and his astounding ability to just pass right over the major gaffs and the idiotic public statements of the Obama camp, sans commentaire, is hardly flattering for someone who prides himself on nuance and good judgement.

Why the complete abdication of all critical thought when it comes to Obama, Gene?

I find myself in agreement with John P - probably for the first time.

Obama does not inspire confidence, his political record….what little of it there is…. is just pathetic.

Obama appears to be some kind of affirmative action candidate. The bar has been set so low for him that his vacuous policy-lite statements are treated as divine revelations. He is a standard Chicago-machine Pol with a track record of inconsequence and vacillation.

Yet Gene treats his every vagary as wisdom. Is it some sort of racism that makes you expect so little?

Re Michelle Obama.

So Gene now thinks that getting an affirmative action pass to Princeton is on a par with spending years being tortured in a rat hole in the jungle?

Ass

You proud of your country, Gene? Do does it take being the wife of a presidential candidate for you to become proud of it?

If I was a Republican supporter I wouldn’t particularly want to bring the wives into it.
Given Cindy’s druga addiction and theft from her charity

Given Cindy’s druga addiction and theft from her charity

Imagine if that had been part of Michelle Obama’s background.

Mrs. Obama seems to be taking a lower profile. It’s not surprising.

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

I agree with John P as well. This election is clearly all about race.

My only hope is that Obama gets elected, has a decent term or two and then we can get back to judging people on their merits instead of the novelty interest in a “black president”.

There is something distinctly affirmative action-like about this election and that is not a good thing for a democracy.

Its a poor parody of a Kennedy speech Mesquito.
But its not exactly drug addiction or theft from your own charity is it.
And remember, neither is a candidate.

When they stand up we will stand down…Remember that.
Events driven withdrawal. NOT claendar driven withdrawal.

McCain on Iraq Withdrawal “Time Horizon”
McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace said the following in Detroit, Mich. about the White House’s announcement that U.S. and Iraqi officials would set a “time horizon” for the eventual withdrawal of troops from Iraq:

By the time of the Elction there’ll be little difference between them

If I were a German, I’d be feeling pissed off with Obama’s ignorance before he’d even set foot in the country.

See here:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,566920,00.html

The Siegessäule in Berlin was moved to where it is now by Adolf Hitler. He saw it as a symbol of German (racial) superiority and of the victorious wars against Denmark, Austria and France

You seem to have mistakenly added the word racial to the der spiegal report.

Yes, shame on Obama for not taking the trouble to see if the monument he’s going to speak at is one that Germans have left standing despite apparently believing that it is a positive symbol of their own Nazi past. That really is a mistake on Obama’s part, and not Germany’s.

“The Iraq war is and has always been an obscenity, a filthy lie born of avarice and lust for power masquerading as virtue. This is what imperialism looks like. But the age of empire is over. The same hubris that led Bush into the Iraq disaster led him to miscalculate, again and again, over how to entrench it. But now he is impotent, unable to impose his will, and the nakedness of his attempted imposition has led the American and the Iraqi peoples to wake up and end his nightmare. May his war-crimes prosecutor be Iraqi; may his judge be American; and may he die in the Hague.”

I don’t know who the bloke is who wrote this, but he shows real brilliance of the “advancing to the rear” variety. The so-called anti-imperialists have always said that the Americans would stay forever and pinch the oil. Whereas, now that it seems that the genuine anti-imperialists were right—that is, that the imperialists had neither the capability nor the desire for long-term occupation of Iraq, and that they would pay for the oil on a mutually beneficial commercial basis, as dictated by their long-term interests, correctly perceived bty the neocons—the fake lot appear to be “adjusting the narrative” to show that they were right from the start. Funnier than the Decentopedia scibbler, certainly–probably because he’s not trying.

Meanwhile, Obama really needs to get to the bottom of this:

The Palestinian Authority’s official news agency Wafa says Israel is using rats to drive Arab families out of their homes in the Old City of Jerusalem.

In the past the news agency, which is controlled and funded by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s office, has accused Israel of using wild pigs to drive Palestinians out of their homes and fields in the West Bank. In the reports, Palestinians were quoted by the agency as saying that they had seen Israelis release herds of wild pigs, which later attacked them.

But this is the first time that Palestinians have spoken of rats being used against them.

The Jersalem Post

If you’re going to bring up symbolic faux pas during an American politician’s visit to Germany, I don’t think anything will top Ronald Reagan’s paying tribute to German war dead at a military cemetery that included the graves of 49 SS soldiers.

The Brandenburg Gate was used extensively in Nazi imagery.
Reagan and Clinton should apologise.

From your link, Gene:

“We do not believe in collective guilt.[consistent with HP, no?] Only God can look into the human heart,” Reagan said in a 15-minute speech at the base.
…

To the survivors of the Holocaust, he said, “Many of you are worried that reconciliation means forgetting. I promise you, we will never forget.”

What was your problem again? Where’s the faux pas?

tim - no mistake: hence why I added it in brackets, dimwit. Like Obama, perhaps you are ignorant of the Fuehrer’s theories behind german supremacy.

The Obamatrons understood perfectly well the symbolism of the Brandenberg Gate, but now we are to assume that they had no clue about the Siegessaule.

Perhaps he should have made the speech at the site his Soviet uncle liberated which was once in the Reich too. After all, a bit of shameless historical invention is what the Obama campaign is all about:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65577

The significance of the Brandenburg gate in Nazi symbolism you mean, or the symbolism of Reagan and Clinton speaking there?

PS. Auschwitz was never in the Reich.
Buchenwald was not liberated by the Soviets.
Confused?

What was your problem again? Where’s the faux pas?

I can’t say what was in the heart of every German soldier during WWII, but I think I can say with some certainty that those recruited to serve in the SS had at least an idea of what they were getting into.

As I remember, even Reagan’s supporters considered his visit to the cemetery an embarrassing mistake.

Zero for 2, “Old” Labour.

http://hanlonsrazor.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/obamas-great-uncle-and-the-shameless-nay-sayers/

Where to begin….Time does not allow the cataloging of Obama’s misstatements, omissions, evasions, half-truths, out-right lies, and simply naive, wrong-headed policy prescriptions. Worse is the cult-like following of dazed groupie-like acolytes/supporters that comprise one of his main bases outside the unions(who are reflexive supporters of any donkey candidate). Did I say I’m not an Obama fan?

The larger question about Obama is this: Charlatan or Buffoon?
With a Charlatan one assumes an underlying connection with reality, and thus one capable of being bargained with, and therefore is slightly to be preferred to the Buffoon who is totally out of touch with reality. The jury is still out. What I am most worried about is the army of staff and political appointees of true believers scattered throughout the various agencies that will comprise an Obama Government–it is at the agency level that the real long term damage will be done as many of Obama’ s people will inevitably survive the Obama Administration firmly ensconced in place.

Although a Vietnam veteran pilot like McCain and a life-long man “of the right,” I am not a big supporter of his mainly due to his stances on immigration and taxes. However my differences with McCain pale in comparison to my fear of an Obama-led Govern- ment. This man is not just the most extreme left-wing liberal
in history to run for President(according to his actual voting record) but is in many ways an out-and-out collectivist swaying betwen the old Soviet stripe to moderate socialist, if one listens
closely to his speaches and reades his position papers. His “advisors” are even worse. Thankfully I am at the stage of my life and have arranged my affairs so that I am relatively immune to any income-tax depredations from an Obama Administration, but I fear that would be the least of my worries.

Now that’s satire, virgil xenophon. You could teach the New Yorker a thing or two.

Gene,

From Wiki:

Reagan defended himself by saying:

“These [SS troops] were the villains, as we know, that conducted the persecutions and all. But there are 2,000 graves there, and most of those, the average age is about 18. I think that there’s nothing wrong with visiting that cemetery where those young men are victims of Nazism also, even though they were fighting in the German uniform, drafted into service to carry out the hateful wishes of the Nazis. They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps”

Remember, this was about reconciliation. I don’t see a problem.

They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps

I remember the uproar caused by that quote. I understood the point Reagan was trying to make, but comparing German soldiers to concentration camp inmates was, to put it mildly, in poor taste.

Here is the Reagan speech. Read it yourself and make your own judgement.

H2>Remarks at a Joint German-American Military Ceremony at Bitburg Air
Base in the Federal Republic of Germany
May 5, 1985Thank you very much. I have just come from the
cemetery where German war dead lay at rest. No one could visit there
without deep and conflicting emotions. I felt great sadness that history
could be filled with such waste, destruction, and evil, but my heart was
also lifted by the knowledge that from the ashes has come hope and that
from the terrors of the past we have built 40 years of peace, freedom, and
reconciliation among our nations.
This visit has stirred many emotions in the American and German people,
too. I’ve received many letters since first deciding to come to Bitburg
cemetery; some supportive, others deeply concerned and questioning, and
others opposed. Some old wounds have been reopened, and this I regret very
much because this should be a time of healing.
To the veterans and families of American servicemen who still carry the
scars and feel the painful losses of that war, our gesture of
reconciliation with the German people today in no way minimizes our love
and honor for those who fought and died for our country. They gave their
lives to rescue freedom in its darkest hour. The alliance of democratic
nations that guards the freedom of millions in Europe and America today
stands as living testimony that their noble sacrifice was not in vain.
No, their sacrifice was not in vain. I have to tell you that nothing
will ever fill me with greater hope than the sight of two former war
heroes who met today at the Bitburg ceremony; each among the bravest of
the brave; each an enemy of the other 40 years ago; each a witness to the
horrors of war. But today they came together, American and German, General
Matthew B. Ridgway and General Johanner Steinhoff, reconciled and united
for freedom. They reached over the graves to one another like brothers and
grasped their hands in peace.
To the survivors of the Holocaust: Your terrible suffering has made you
ever vigilant against evil. Many of your are worried that reconciliation
means forgetting. Well, I promise you, we will never forget. I have just
come this morning from Bergen-Belsen, where the horror of that terrible
crime, the Holocaust, was forever burned upon my memory. No, we will never
forget, and we say with the victims of that Holocaust: Never again.
The war against one man’s totalitarian dictatorship was not like other
wars. The evil war of nazism turned all values upside down. Nevertheless,
we can mourn the German war dead today as human beings crushed by a
vicious ideology.
There are over 2,000 buried in Bitburg cemetery. Among them are 48
members of the SS — the crimes of the SS must rank among the most heinous
in human history — but others buried there were simply soldiers in the
German Army. How many were fanatical followers of a dictator and willfully
carried out his cruel orders? And how many were conscripts, forced into
service during the death throes of the Nazi war machine? We do not know.
Many, however, we know from the dates on their tombstones, were only
teenagers at the time. There is one boy buried there who died a week
before his 16th birthday.
There were thousands of such soldiers to whom nazism meant no more than
a brutal end to a short life. We do not believe in collective guilt. Only
God can look into the human heart, and all these men have now met their
supreme judge, and they have been judged by Him as we shall all be judged.
Our duty today is to mourn the human wreckage of totalitarianism, and
today in Bitburg cemetery we commemorated the potential good in humanity
that was consumed back then, 40 years ago. Perhaps if that 15-year-old
soldier had lived, he would have joined his fellow countrymen in building
this new democratic Federal Republic of Germany, devoted to human dignity
and the defense of freedom that we celebrate today. Or perhaps his
children or his grandchildren might be among you here today at the Bitburg
Air Base, where new generations of Germans and Americans join together in
friendship and common cause, dedicating their lives to preserving peace
and guarding the security of the free world.
Too often in the past each war only planted the seeds of the next. We
celebrate today the reconciliation between our two nations that has
liberated us from that cycle of destruction. Look at what together we’ve
accomplished. We who were enemies are now friends; we who were bitter
adversaries are now the strongest of allies.
In the place of fear we’ve sown trust, and out of the ruins of war has
blossomed an enduring peace. Tens of thousands of Americans have served in
this town over the years. As the mayor of Bitburg has said, in that time
there have been some 6,000 marriages between Germans and Americans, and
many thousands of children have come from these unions. This is the real
symbol of our future together, a future to be filled with hope,
friendship, and freedom.
The hope that we see now could sometimes even be glimpsed in the
darkest days of the war. I’m thinking of one special story — that of a
mother and her young son living alone in a modest cottage in the middle of
the woods. And one night as the Battle of the Bulge exploded not far away,
and around them, three young American soldiers arrived at their door —
they were standing there in the snow, lost behind enemy lines. All were
frostbitten; one was badly wounded. Even though sheltering the enemy was
punishable by death, she took them in and made them a supper with some of
her last food. Then, they heard another knock at the door. And this time
four German soldiers stood there. The woman was afraid, but she quickly
said with a firm voice, “There will be no shooting here.” She made all
the soldiers lay down their weapons, and they all joined in the makeshift
meal. Heinz and Willi, it turned out, were only 16; the corporal was the
oldest at 23. Their natural suspicion dissolved in the warmth and the
comfort of the cottage. One of the Germans, a former medical student,
tended the wounded American.
But now, listen to the rest of the story through the eyes of one who
was there, now a grown man, but that young lad that had been her son. He
said: “The Mother said grace. I noticed that there were tears in her eyes
as she said the old, familiar words, `Komm, Herr Jesus. Be our guest.’ And
as I looked around the table, I saw tears, too, in the eyes of the
battle-weary soldiers, boys again, some from America, some from Germany,
all far from home.”
That night — as the storm of war tossed the world — they had their
own private armistice. And the next morning, the German corporal showed
the Americans how to get back behind their own lines. And they all shook
hands and went their separate ways. That happened to be Christmas Day, 40
years ago.
Those boys reconciled briefly in the midst of war. Surely we allies in
peacetime should honor the reconciliation of the last 40 years.
To the people of Bitburg, our hosts and the hosts of our servicemen,
like that generous woman 40 years ago, you make us feel very welcome.
Vielen dank. [Many thanks.]
And to the men and women of Bitburg Air Base, I just want to say that
we know that even with such wonderful hosts, your job is not an easy one.
You serve around the clock far from home, always ready to defend freedom.
We’re grateful, and we’re very proud of you.
Four decades ago we waged a great war to lift the darkness of evil from
the world, to let men and women in this country and in every country live
in the sunshine of liberty. Our victory was great, and the Federal
Republic, Italy, and Japan are now in the community of free nations. But
the struggle for freedom is not complete, for today much of the world is
still cast in totalitarian darkness.
Twenty-two years ago President John F. Kennedy went to the Berlin Wall
and proclaimed that he, too, was a Berliner. Well, today freedom-loving
people around the world must say: I am a Berliner. I am a Jew in a world
still threatened by anti-Semitism. I am an Afghan, and I am a prisoner of
the Gulag. I am a refugee in a crowded boat foundering off the coast of
Vietnam. I am a Laotian, a Cambodian, a Cuban, and a Miskito Indian in
Nicaragua. I, too, am a potential victim of totalitarianism.
The one lesson of World War II, the one lesson of nazism, is that
freedom must always be stronger than totalitarianism and that good must
always be stronger than evil. The moral measure of our two nations will be
found in the resolve we show to preserve liberty, to protect life, and to
honor and cherish all God’s children.
That is why the free, democratic Federal Republic of Germany is such a
profound and hopeful testament to the human spirit. We cannot undo the
crimes and wars of yesterday nor call back the millions back to life, but
we can give meaning to the past by learning its lessons and making a
better future. We can let our pain drive us to greater efforts to heal
humanity’s suffering.
Today I’ve traveled 220 miles from Bergen-Belsen, and, I feel, 40 years
in time. With the lessons of the past firmly in our minds, we’ve turned a
new, brighter page in history.
One of the many who wrote me about this visit was a young woman who had
recently been bas mitzvahed. She urged me to lay the wreath at Bitburg
cemetery in honor of the future of Germany. And that is what we’ve done.
On this 40th anniversary of World War II, we mark the day when the
hate, the evil, and the obscenities ended, and we commemorate the
rekindling of the democratic spirit in Germany.
There’s much to make us hopeful on this historic anniversary. One of
the symbols of that hate — that could have been that hope, a little while
ago, when we heard a German band playing the American National Anthem and
an American band playing the German National Anthem. While much of the
world still huddles in the darkness of oppression, we can see a new dawn
of freedom sweeping the globe. And we can see in the new democracies of
Latin America, in the new economic freedoms and prosperity in Asia, in the
slow movement toward peace in the Middle East, and in the strengthening
alliance of democratic nations in Europe and America that the light from
that dawn is growing stronger.
Together, let us gather in that light and walk out of the shadow. Let
us live in peace.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 3:33 p.m. after laying a wreath in a
nearby military cemetery in Bitburg. He was accompanied by Chancellor
Kohl. Following the ceremony, the President returned to Schloss Gymnich in
Bonn, where he stayed during his visit to Germany.

Return to: WWW-VL: United
States History Index

I am not a big supporter of his mainly due to his stances on immigration and taxes.

Given that McCain sponsored a bill on Immigration that he now says he would vote against, and given that he voted against the Bush tax cuts but now says he will make them permanent, just which bits are you against.

Agreed, Gene. Presumably the German soldiers had a fighting chance before they were killed, unlike victims of the holocaust. That was indeed a Reagan faux pas. Visiting the cemetery wasn’t.

The Siegessaule thing is astounding. Until this week, as far as everyone in Germany was concerned, it was the symbol of victory in the wars that led to German unification and they were about as offended by it as Americans are offended by the Washington Monument. Berliners fondly refer to it as “Golden Lizzy”. Now, suddenly, it’s Hitler’s favourite edifice, and the people of Germany are deeply ashamed of it and presumably planning to tear it down as soon as Obama’s gone. The GOP has been working its German contacts very hard.

Meanwhile, here’s McCain re-writing history:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200804010011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/04/mccains-day-marked-by-fal_n_105283.html

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/04/mccain-katrina/

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/08/mccain-veterans-award-redux/

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807110006

I didn’t know that candidates for President were required to choose, or traditionally chose lawmakers from across the partisan aisle to accompany them on world tours, but even if that is so, I am still curious as to what foreign policy message Obama and his team are trying to convey by selecting Chuck Hagel?

Obama couldn’t find his ass with both hands and GPS. He is a suit full of bugger all. There are pre-school kids who are better qualified to be US Commander in Chief than Senator O’Barmy.

His entire appeal lies in him being (a) younger than McCain (who is also a bust flush) (b) black and (c) and saying “change” a lot. Well, fuck me! My newsagent actually handles change all the time so why can’t he be Prez? He’d do a better job than O’Barmy but then so would my cat.

I’m allowed to smirk here because I’ve suffered 11 years of NeuArbeit and the likes of “Red” Dawn Primnproper, Reichschancellor Brown, Gauleiter Balls, Hazel Bleary, that fat cow from Brum, the Millipedes, Hariet-cunting-Harman, Bliar, Blunkett, Jack “the last” Straw and the whole rest of that cavalcade of ugly, nasty, corrupt jackanapes that have donkey-punched this country into the ground for most of my adult life. God may forgive them but I won’t.

Looks like it will soon be America’s turn in the barrel. As Nelson Muntz might say, “Ha Ha!”

Every attack against Obama could be 100% true, and he’d still be welcomed by 90% of Americans as an improvement on Dubya.

PS. Auschwitz w