Saturday, June 6, 2009

American exceptionalism and sacrifice ( finally) acknowledged at D-Day celebrations

Unfortunately, it wasn't the unappreciative Obama but the America-loving French PM, Nicholas Sarkozy, who made the acknowledgment. Of course, the Brits thought Sark gave too much credit to the Americans but he had already stepped on his own d--k by forgetting to invite the Queen. The French always have a hard time recalling WWII and their performance prior to D-Day. The Brits had a bad day with Gordon Brown being introduced as the "English" PM and with Brown referring to "Obama" Beach.

Obama ascribed the significance of D-Day to the "improbability" of it succeeding. This is fine except that it implies that Eisenhower was incompetent in risking so much at bad odds. D-Day wasn't a lead-pipe cinch ( as would have been recommended by the overly cautious Powell Doctrine -- conjuring up the timidity of George McClellan ) but it reflected cost-effective odds in the spirit of Frederick the Great: L'audace! Toujours l'audace. Actually, many things broke WRONG that day ( the paratroops landed in the wrong place, weather prevented the air force from suppressing German cliff-top guns and troops were inadequately briefed on how to avoid drowning in the surf. ) so the a prior odds were properly anticipated and the troops were very well led and motivated.

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