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Showing posts with label Obama's European Apology Tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama's European Apology Tour. Show all posts

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Obama to Apologize to Germany for World War II?


The Atlas Shrugs blog has distilled several recent news stories and scholarly articles that suggest Obama is about to apologize to the Germans for World War II. Were this any other American politician of the Left, we would consider such an idea sheer lunacy. Of course many of them hate America, its history, and all that it has stood for in the world. But most have enough political pragmatism to keep such impulses in check. In Obama we have an ideologue whose hatred and arrogance surpasses base political pragmatism. He is a narcissist whose hatred and evil is on a grand scale. Once he has finished apologizing to the world for all the evils of America, can reparations be far behind?

As you reflect this Memorial Day weekend on the hundreds of thousands who gave all for their country, consider the fact that all they fought against now occupies the White House.

From Atlas Shrugs

The latest inconceivable Obamaction is yet another unbecoming apology in Europe, this time in Germany for WWII. John Rosenthal suggests, "As bizarre as it may seem, President Obama’s impending trip to Dresden suggests that German revisionists have a friend in the White House".

And American Thinker adds, "the message Obama intends to send by visiting both sites is clear; while the Germans did bad things during World War II, they were also victims of Allied atrocities."

The latest German reports suggest Obama’s principal German destination will be Dresden. According to an article in the local paper Die Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, representatives of the German and American governments met in Dresden last Wednesday to discuss preparations for the visit. An American security detail is reported to have already scoped out sites in the city: presumably for a public speech.

The symbolic significance of a visit to Dresden by the American president — especially one undertaken in connection with a D-Day commemoration in France — may be missed by some Americans, but it is absolutely unmistakable for the German public. For Germans, Dresden is the symbol bar none of German suffering at the hands of the Allies. The city was heavily bombed by British and American air forces in February 1945, toward the end of the war. According to the most recent estimates of professional historians, anywhere from 18,000 to at most 25,000 persons died in the attacks. These numbers come from a historical commission established by the city of Dresden itself. But far higher numbers — ranging into the hundreds of thousands — have long circulated in Germany and beyond. The bombing of Dresden is commonly described as a “war crime” in German discussions.

Alleged crimes committed by the Allies against Germans and Germany have indeed become a sort of German literary obsession in recent years, with numerous books being devoted to the subject. The taste of the German public for the theme was made particularly clear by the enormous success of author Jörg Friedrich’s 2002 volume The Fire [Der Brand], which is about the Allied bombardment of Germany. The book’s success was so great that Friedrich and his publisher quickly followed up with a picture book on the same topic titled Scenes of the Fire: How the Bombing Looked.

Obama should spend the day tending to the graves of our brave and glorious dead, who sacrificed their lives so that Europe could live on to descend into a pathetic, amoral collectivism. Europe owes us an apology for squandering our blood and treasure on a morally bankrupt transnational gobbledy goop EU wallowing in pathetic collectivism.

Time for a history lesson. What better day to teach the foreign exchange student in the White House a lesson about American exceptionalism, heroism, and greatness?

America's European Arrogance (hat tip Joan S)

1. The American Cemetery at Aisne-Marne, France. A total of 2,289 of our military dead. We apologize.


2. The American Cemetery at Ardennes, Belgium. A total of 5,329 of our dead. We are so ashamed of our arrogance.


3. The American Cemetery at Brittany, France. A total of 4,410 of our military dead. Excuse us.


4. Brookwood, England American Cemetery. A total of 4,680 of our dead. We are such an evil country.


5. Cambridge, England. 3,812 of our military dead. What on earth were we thinking?


6. Epinal, France American Cemetery. A total of 5,525 of our military dead. Please forgive us.


7. Flanders Field, Belgium. A total of 3,680 of our military. We are so sorry.


8. Florence, Italy. A total of 4,402 of our military dead. We are a bully nation.


9. Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. A total of 7,992 of our military dead. They deserved what they got.


10. Lorraine, France. A total of 10,489 of our military dead. FDR and Truman were lying war criminals.


11. Luxembourg, Luxembourg. A total of 5,076 of our military dead. Arrogant oppression, pure and simple.

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12. Meuse-Argonne. A total of 14,246 of our military dead. Just think of how many civilians they killed.


13. Netherlands, Netherlands. A total of 8,301 of our military dead. They were murderers.


14. Normandy, France. A total of 9,387 of our military dead. Baby killers, one and all.


15. Oise-Aisne, France. A total of 6,012 of our military dead. They were torturers, too.


16. Rhone, France. A total of 861 of our military dead. Remorseless killers doing the bidding of an evil nation.


17. Sicily, Italy. A total of 7,861 of our military dead. What can America ever do to redeem itself?


18. Somme, France. A total of 1,844 of our military dead. Arrogant war-mongers of an arrogant nation.


19. St. Mihiel, France. A total of 4,153 of our military dead. War criminals.


20. Suresnes, France. A total of 1,541 of our military dead. Oh, God in heaven, please forgive us for being such an arrogant country.


The total number of Americans buried at the cemeteries above is 104,366 -- a mere fraction of those who died liberating Europe -- and yet an American president who confuses arrogance with leadership feels the need to apologize in Europe for the country he obviously holds in contempt.

It is virtually unthinkable that Obama could give a speech in Dresden and not allude to the bombing of the city. Most of the city’s historical monuments — which Obama’s advance team were apparently inspecting — were severely damaged or destroyed in the bombing and had to be rebuilt. Moreover, for Obama to visit both Dresden and Buchenwald would suggest precisely the sort of outrageous parallels that have become commonplace in Germany at least since the publication of Friedrich’s The Fire.

(As so happens, although tens of thousands of persons died there, Buchenwald was not one of the camps specifically devoted to the extermination of Jews. But far be it from Obama to know that. When, during the election campaign, he first referred to his Uncle Charlie’s WWII exploits, he said that his uncle had helped to liberate “Auschwitz.” Moreover, Charlie Payne did not really participate in the liberation of Buchenwald either, but rather in that of Ohrdruf: a lesser-known, affiliated camp some sixty kilometers away.)

Europe traded the lives of 6 million Jews for 55 million Muslims. Good luck with that.

And Ovamit is apologizing.