Stirner
07-06-2004, 18:52
What if our current crop of politicians and commentators were around for the Normandy Invasion?
Our Look Back at Normandy (http://victorhanson.com/Articles/Private%20Papers/Normandy.html)
John Kerry: Let me just say as a veteran—and one with some experience in military affairs—that you don’t just pull up to a beach and expect to trot into Europe. And I will add as well, as I have on previous occasions, that this was the worst planned American operation in our entire history. As is the custom in this hallowed nation, someone now, some person, has to, must, and should be held accountable for this mess. In my capacity as a leader in foreign affairs in the Senate, I have with all candor tried to tell this administration to slow down and get the League of Nations back into the peace process. But as I have repeatedly warned, when you unilaterally go off to invade some continent, this is what you get.
This administration talks grandly of the “Allies;” but as I have demonstrated on numerous occasions, what they are really talking about are just two countries on the beach with us, and as expected I have warned about just what we are seeing now, that those who die will be Americans and those who pay for it all will be us. As a humanitarian, of course, I agree that Hitler was a tyrant and has to go—but there are more subtle and sober ways to do just that than blindly landing on a stormy beach and sending Americans to their slaughter.
Ted Kennedy: This entire disaster was cooked up in Hyde Park. The British didn’t want it. Our commanders in the Pacific were against it. The French people surely didn’t want “freedom” falling as bombs from the air.
Madeline Albright: We had Hitler is his box. In the air and sea we had him cornered. He couldn’t move without us knowing it. But Omaha Beach is what you get when you mix in triumphalism, machismo, testosterone, and unilateralism.
Ted Koppel: Tonight I will read the names of the dead of the 101st Airborne, tomorrow the 82nd. Have patience with us. There really are thousands of American casualties—and this was just on the first day of what we know is more to come later this month. And while our leaders don’t wish to deal with it, we at ABC do—and think you do as well.
NPR: Today we speak with Pierre Lang, a Normandy dairy farmer and once proud owner of four cows—until the morning of June 6.
Farmer Lang: “The Germans? They never blew up my cows! No—only you did that. Look at the craters, the burned barn, the dead animals. Who are the real Nazis?”
NPR: Perhaps you should ask Mr. Roosevelt that question, Mr. Lang.
Read the whole thing.
Our Look Back at Normandy (http://victorhanson.com/Articles/Private%20Papers/Normandy.html)
John Kerry: Let me just say as a veteran—and one with some experience in military affairs—that you don’t just pull up to a beach and expect to trot into Europe. And I will add as well, as I have on previous occasions, that this was the worst planned American operation in our entire history. As is the custom in this hallowed nation, someone now, some person, has to, must, and should be held accountable for this mess. In my capacity as a leader in foreign affairs in the Senate, I have with all candor tried to tell this administration to slow down and get the League of Nations back into the peace process. But as I have repeatedly warned, when you unilaterally go off to invade some continent, this is what you get.
This administration talks grandly of the “Allies;” but as I have demonstrated on numerous occasions, what they are really talking about are just two countries on the beach with us, and as expected I have warned about just what we are seeing now, that those who die will be Americans and those who pay for it all will be us. As a humanitarian, of course, I agree that Hitler was a tyrant and has to go—but there are more subtle and sober ways to do just that than blindly landing on a stormy beach and sending Americans to their slaughter.
Ted Kennedy: This entire disaster was cooked up in Hyde Park. The British didn’t want it. Our commanders in the Pacific were against it. The French people surely didn’t want “freedom” falling as bombs from the air.
Madeline Albright: We had Hitler is his box. In the air and sea we had him cornered. He couldn’t move without us knowing it. But Omaha Beach is what you get when you mix in triumphalism, machismo, testosterone, and unilateralism.
Ted Koppel: Tonight I will read the names of the dead of the 101st Airborne, tomorrow the 82nd. Have patience with us. There really are thousands of American casualties—and this was just on the first day of what we know is more to come later this month. And while our leaders don’t wish to deal with it, we at ABC do—and think you do as well.
NPR: Today we speak with Pierre Lang, a Normandy dairy farmer and once proud owner of four cows—until the morning of June 6.
Farmer Lang: “The Germans? They never blew up my cows! No—only you did that. Look at the craters, the burned barn, the dead animals. Who are the real Nazis?”
NPR: Perhaps you should ask Mr. Roosevelt that question, Mr. Lang.
Read the whole thing.