Debbie Schlussel: NAUSEATING: Obama Avoided Normandy Cemetery To Avoid Offending Brits, Germans
A longtime friend e-mailed me:
Do you suppose Obama could have visited at least one American war dead cemetery while in France, especially since this is his first trip there as President? I guess it doesn't fit in well with his agenda of apologizing for American "arrogance."
But it's even worse than my friend suggested. In fact, Barack Hussein Obama was urged by French President Nicholas Sarkozy to visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where American soldiers who gave their lives in WWII's invasion at Normandy are buried. But he declined so as not to offend Germany and Britain. HUH?
Yes, he's now so worried what the walking-dead Europeans think that an American President won't visit the graves of those who gave their lives for America (and, I might add, for Germany and Britain--without us, they might not be here).
White House officials travelled to France at the start of March to discuss a visit by Mr Obama to Omaha Beach, the site of the American Cemetery, established in 1944 just after D-Day and where 9,387 American personnel are buried. Among them is Theodore Roosevelt Jr the eldest son of the 26th US President.French officials and senior American military officers walked with White House staff through the cemetery discussing how the two presidents might follow the same route. But even before their trip, the White House had decided that Mr Obama would not travel there this week.
"It wasn't going to happen," said an American official in Washington. "We went through the motions to placate President Sarkozy but giving special treatment to France was not on our agenda.
"During this trip, we wanted to maintain a balance between the British, German and France". A White House spokesman in London declined to comment. Last month, White House officials briefed that a Normandy visit had been considered but it had not been logistically possible. . . .
According to French reports, Mr Obama was to visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-mer, just north of Omaha Beach. The pair were apparently to have dined at the nearby chateau de Benouville in Caen.
The White House rejected the offer.
Yes, this is the new "symmetry" of the Obama administration. Tit-for-tat bean counting silliness. If you visit the American war dead in France, then you are somehow showing favoritism against Germany and Britain. But if you visit the queen and a school in Britain, you aren't showing favoritism? The logic isn't there.
And please don't tell me about how the Prez is going back to France, this summer, for the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. There is never an inappropriate time for an American President to visit the graves of those who gave their lives so we could be free.
A cemetery visit should have been among the visits in Europe.
And by cemetery visit, I don't mean Michelle Obama's tour of a Jewish cemetery in Prague.
If the Obamas had time for that, they certainly had time for our fallen troops.
By the way, you know who else Obama might offend in a visit to the Normandy American Cemetery?
Well, there are lots of crosses and a number of Jewish stars marking the graves of those who died there. But guess what there aren't a lot of? Islamic crescents. In fact, there may not be any at all.
Posted by Debbie on April 6, 2009 04:52 PM to Debbie Schlussel