BUCHENWALD, Germany (CNN) -- President Barack Obama made an emotional visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, Friday, saying that the camp should serve as a reminder of humanity's duty to fight the spread of evil.
I think 'evil' in this case means 'right-wing militarists'. Like Hitler and the Nazis. Like Cheney/Bush and the neocons inter alia.
Watch Obama honor Holocaust victims
Good for you, Barry. Put this out front to put the lie to Holocaust deniers.
At the time of the physical discovery and liberation of the concentration & extermination camps* Eisenhower said that someday, some one would claim it never happened. He was prescient. Or had a good grasp of political agendas.
*Their presence was known. And pretty much ignored. They couldn't keep it from the thousands of U.S. soldiers who showed up at the gates so the camps were 'discovered'.
The Holocaust (Ha-Shoah) happened. Case closed. On that one.
Where ya goin' next, O-Man?
Later Friday, the president travels to Germany's Ramstein Air Base and visits with wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. He will end the day in Paris ahead of D-Day commemoration services on Saturday.
Whew! I should know by now that Obama doesn't pull bonehead stunts like, say, Reagan, who for political reasons went directly from a visit to the Bergen-Belsen camp to a German military cemetery at Bitburg. This did not go unnoticed.
Decorations and memorials on the Waffen-SS graves were removed just prior to Reagan's visit, and replaced right after
I think showing support for a modern German leader by honoring a past that Germany will never completely live down right after going to one of the places that created the past they will never completely live down is a little odd, to say the least. I think Repugs secretly admire the Nazis for not taking any shit from the rabble like they have to take here. It would be much easier for them to consolidate wealth and power and world dominance without that 'goddam piece of paper' standing in their way.
Let me close this by saying that I like Germans. They are intelligent and industrious people. It has been said that the English couldn't manufacture what they could draw, but the Krauts sure can, and they have some truly demented engineers and designers! For instance, they make wonderful motorcycles, but the box of special tools to work on a German-made BMW engine weighs more than the engine!
Just as an aside, some BMW motorcycle engines are now made in China. English Triumph motorcycles are now made in Thailand so mox nix, I guess. I gotta think about all that some more, but it seems as if Asians can make whatever any Europeans can draw. Heh. Another time...
Historically, Germans haven't liked their own country for various reasons at various times, and our country is full of the descendants of German immigrants. German almost became our common language. Thank God cooler heads prevailed! Germans are a little hot-headed sometimes and need a periodic stompin', but maybe the last time kicked it out of 'em for a while.
If ya put two and two together in a slightly off-kilter way, I owe my presence on the Brain to WWII and Germany, so, thanks Adolf. Wow.
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