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Saluting The “Greatest Generation” ‘09
Jun 6th
At the end of an Historic week for Our President, he made the traditional Journey to the Beaches of Normandy, for the Ceremony honoring D-Day.
Seeing those barren sands, areas once drenched in the blood and tissues of Allied heroes, remnants of the Nazi defenses, the rows of crosses, the “Soldier Crosses” of helmet on rifle butt, brings it all home once more ; They truly saved The World, and deserve the moniker “The Greatest Generation“.
As a Patriotic sort, I watch these events, and all the speeches every year, all that’s available.
This year two major thoughts occurred to me; (1), The remaining Veteran’s who are able to make it to France is quickly declining each year. More are in Wheel Chairs and using Walkers each year. For every one of the Vet’s who are able to make it to these Memorial ceremonies, there are dozens who are spending the last days of their lives in Veteran’s Hospitals, Medicare funded Nursing homes, and other lonely places that are all Far Less than what these humble Heroes deserve., One veteran made it to France this year, left yesterday’s gatherings because he wasn’t feeling well, and died in his sleep last night.
Sad, Yes, but in another sense, he died in close proximity to all those friends and strangers who strove for survival and Victory, those bloody days 65 years past.
Even the least likely websites are saluting these Heros today, check out this first link, it is from a website called “TransBuddha, a stopover on The Road to Enlightment” : http://www.transbuddha.com/content/june-6th-1944/
Related articles by Zemanta
- D-Day veteran still not sure how he survived (ctv.ca)
- Prince Charles and Gordon Brown attend anniversary of DDay landings in France (telegraph.co.uk)
- Obama Marks D-Day’s 65th Anniversary (huffingtonpost.com)
- DDay veterans fear being sidelined amid politicians’ ‘jamboree’ (telegraph.co.uk)
The Second Idea that occurred to me today was, (2) All those other leaders in attendance, sort of stood “in the shadow” of Barack Obama. From the tall, gangly Prince Charles, to the rather diminutive Nicholas Sarkozy, all those fellows seemed rather bland in comparison to the young and energetic American President!.
I’m betting that even those ‘knee-jerk’ conservatives who are prepared at every moment to disagree with everything Obama says, have had to feel some sense of pride in how well he has handled himself, and his easy way with the people of all the nations he has visited, and spoken to, in recent days.
I for one, feel that pride, and as an independent who voted for McCain, I never expected to appreciate this President the way I do.
In closing, I’ll just say a Humble “Thank You” to all those Ordinary Men who performed Extraordinary tasks so long ago. To all those young Europeans who have learned little of their nation’s history, “If you are speaking French, English, or Spanish today, Thank an American GI that you aren’t all speaking German !”
What Do You Think ?
Please leave me a Comment !
Thanks for Visiting ! HV
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What a Crazy Week That Was !
Jun 1st
Man-Oh-Man, I don’t know where to start! There’s just so much going on in this nutty world right now, that ordering the priorities of what to write is way too difficult !
Let’s start with “The Child-Molester Tyrant” of North Korea. He’s got his panties in a wad again, apparently he’s not getting enough attention, so like the little girls he “dates”, he’s throwing tantrums of a major sort. First of all he set-off another alleged Nuclear explosion, which was strong enough to be sensed by seismographs in Japan and Russia. When that didn’t garner enough attention, he followed up with some missile launches, and those combined actions got the world community to call Security Council meetings at the UN, and even got China to issue some condemnations too.
People like myself like to condemn groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban for using human shields, and holding hostages and arms caches in schools and mosques. but this guy is a second-generation terrorist, who is holding an entire starving nation hostage against the world’s justice. The really sad part is that the poor people are so brainwashed with paranoia and so afraid to think for themselves, that when a few million of them fall victim to a retaliatory attack their lifetime of living in an isolated “Hermit Society” will cause them to blame the outside world, in particular the United States.
Back home in the states, President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor has unleashed some latent insanity among the Republicans. Never mind that many of these same politicians have easily approved her for past Federal Judiciary posts, all of a sudden she’s a “Reverse Racist”, a judge known to “Legislate-from-the-Bench”, and is a surefire vote to overturn Roe-V-Wade, because she’s a Catholic !
Over in Iran, someone is finally giving them a dose of their own medicine. Last week a mosque was bombed, and just yesterday, a bomb was found onboard a plane bound for Teheran, flying out of the city of Ahvaz, capital of the Oil rich province of Khuzestan, a place where the Arab population has long complained that they do not get a fair share of the income from their province’s oil output, and claim that the central government in Teheran ignore their needs. To quickly defuse the anger about the mosque bombing, three men were quickly hung for the attack ! Look for the same fast action on the attempted airplane bombing.
The three men who were hung were just accused of bringing in the explosives, and of course, the Ayatollahs have accussed the US for planning the attack on the mosque, which was said to have killed 25 and injured scores of others. Here is a good report on the situation from CNN:
A judiciary spokesman in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan told the state-run news agency IRNA that Haji Noti Zehi, Gholam Rasoul Shai Zehi and Zabihollah Naroubi had smuggled into the country the explosives used in Thursday’s bombing in the Shia mosque of Amir al-Momenin. Before the executions, Hojatoleslam Ebrahim Hamidi said: “These three traitors, who smuggled in the explosives and put them at the disposal of a terrorist played a major role in the murders,” IRNA said. The three were hanged in public just before the funerals of the people killed in the mosque Thursday. “The three were charged with waging war (against God), corruption on earth and activities against the state. They were convicted and they had confessed to their crimes, and their role in smuggling explosives into the country had been proven,” Hamidi told IRNA. Reports on the number of casualties varied in Iranian reports. Some local agencies said more than 20 people were killed and 125 were wounded in the bombing. He said the three had been arrested a few days before the actual bombing and their role in bringing in the explosives had been proven. The judiciary spokesman in Zahedan added: “Immediately after the mosque explosion, the cases of the three men were referred to a team from the judiciary who spent thirty hours investigating it. The three men were convicted of the charges after the due process of the law, including a state-appointed lawyer to defend them, was observed and the defendants were found guilty of all charges.” The spokesman added that the three men had been accused of several other crimes, including direct participation in a bus bombing three years ago in Zahedan and at least two other bombings, IRNA said. Hamidi said that the three men had also been involved in four hostage taking incidents, had planned eight other hostage taking and terrorist operations that had been discovered by the police before they could be carried out. * Deadly blast at Iranian mosque “This file is not closed yet. They (men) were only a part of this plot, more culprits will be identified and punished in the near future,” the judiciary spokesman said. Hamidi said: “The enemy is now trying to sow dissension among the various tribes and sects and are trying to flame the fires through terrorist acts. While the country is preparing for the 10th presidential elections, the hand of world’s arrogant powers is coming out through the sleeves of a bunch of traitors who ignore even the sanctity of mosques.” IRNA said Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, condemned the bombing and sent a message of sympathy to the victims’ relatives. “In his statement, he condemned the involvement of certain expansionist superpowers and their spying organizations in the plots against Muslim nations and between the followers of Islam’s different sects and causing bloodshed among Muslim brothers in Iran and other regional countries,” IRNA reported. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line cleric, also said there were signs that the United States and Israel were involved in the mosque bombing, IRNA reported. The United States denied the allegations. “The U.S. strongly condemns all forms of terrorism. We do not sponsor any form of terrorism in Iran. And we continue to work with the international community to try to prevent any attacks against innocent civilians anywhere,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in a Friday briefing. Here’s a link to the Airline Bomb Plot:http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/31/iran.bomb/index.htmlPlease leave a comment, and let me know what you think of All these Items, Thanks, HV
Don’t Miss
Our “Secretary of War” Robert M. Gates
May 18th
“Secretary of War” Robert Gates on 60 Minutes
Yes, I realize there hasn’t been a ‘Secretary of War’ since the 40’s, but that’s what Bob Gates calls himself, and how he feels about his job.
I admire that!. He’s got a point. His actions in recent months; cutting future weapons systems in his budget, concentrating his expenditures on safer vehicles for our troops in Afghanistan, along with better weapons for the battles being fought today.
He says that the Pakistani’s have the troops and wherewithal to defeat the Taliban and Al Queda in the Northwest Territories, but he thinks they are hedging their bets. Keeping some doors open to the Taliban in Afghanistan, because they, (Pakistan), aren’t sure we’re going to win that war. I think that’s unacceptable for a supposed ally, especially one who’s taken Billions in Military and Financial Aid from the US since 9-11-01.
I was also impressed with Mr. Gate’s statement that he has kept an account on every service man and women killed or injured since the day he took office. He discussed this when Katie Couric noted that last Veteran’s Day, at Arlington Natoinal Cemetery, he had wandered among the tombstones until he located the first soldier killed on his,(Gate’s) first day in Office. That’s where he began his list of every GI killed or wounded since his “watch” began.
Asked by Katie Couric if he liked his job, he responded that because every troop in both Iraq and Afghanistan was someone he had sent there since taking office, that they were on his mind constantly, so
there was no way anyone could like or enjoy that job. I hope he was doing a subtle slam of that ‘Cowboy Rumsfeld’, who seemed to be a “Happy Warrior” and never gave a damn about anyone he sent to die.
As one who remembers every “SecDef” since the disastrous Robert McNamara, and has even met and shaken hands with one, ( Paul Nitze ), (Whoops, Wiki just informed me he was only a Deputy SecDef), anyway,.. I met him when he was Secretary of the Navy, and was impressed,enough so to read several of his books and articles published both before and after he founded the “School for Advanced International Studies” at Johns Hopkins University. That school
now bears his name, following his death in 2004, at age 97.
Sorry for the little detour, but for a “Cold Warrior”, Paul Nitze was a moderate and pragmatic man, much like Mr. Gates appears to be. I’m glad Bob Gates chose to stay on with the Obama Administration, and glad too Obama had the good sense to ask him to continue with the job he’s done so well.
Comments anyone ?
A Brief Bio from Wiki :
Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is currently serving as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense. He took office on December 18, 2006.[2] Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of Central Intelligence. Before he joined the CIA, he served with the United States Air Force (USAF).
This Sunday in the News 5-3-09
May 3rd
Monday Update, Pakistan Fights Back ! Finally !
Late Edition ! Here’s my post on “The First 100 Days”
This Sunday in the News 5-3-09
First off, I would like to predict that the “H1N1″ Flu pandemic never happens!. I am glad to see the firm and fast response from the CDC as well as The White House, and every government agency. This is reassuring, and shows that we will never again get ‘caught with our pants down’ by another crisis or contagion. Meanwhile, I’m also dismayed about the near-panic brought about by the excessive coverage across the entire media spectrum.
I was “On-the-road” from the 21st through the 1st of May, and so didn’t have much access to my Home in Cyberspace, but was still in the loop through radio, TV and Newspapers. I joined every other observer in being amazed at the insensitivity of the White House Press Office’s decision to fly a huge Jumbo Jet through Manhattan Airspace, without warning the Mayor’s Office, or the local media. What arrogant fools! The “Fools” label would also apply to the Air Force commanders who authorized the Photo/fighter escort that took the Promo Photo’s for which the mission was ordered. O.K. That covers the trivial BS since my last posts, now, What concerns me Most this Week, is the ongoing advances of the Taliban in Pakistan. This should have been at the forefront of all other matters in the Media Coverage of these past two weeks. For anyone who isn’t aware of the situation, let me condense recent events in troubled Pakistan. A month or so back, the Pakistani Government signed an agreement with the insurgent Taliban, allowing them to take-over the Court System in the Bruner Province, and replace the National Judicial System with Sharia Law Judges, who would administer over civil and criminal trials using their Fundamentalist Islamic interpretation of the law. Remember, these are the very same nutjobs that we ran out of Afghanistan in 2002. They regard Women as chattel of their husbands, with no rights or privileges beyond what they are given in the Koran, which is to say, None. These are the same folks who have beheaded young men for listening to Western Music, and not growing their beards. More alarming than this situation with the Court System, is the Paki’ Government’s failure to respond militarily to the Taliban’s advances to within 60 miles of their Capital City of Islamabad!. The Military commanders, in meetings with their American counterparts, say they are unworried about the control of their Nuclear Arsenal, nor about their intelligence agency’s,(INI) sympathy and assistance to the Taliban in the “Tribal Regions” along the Afghan Border. They seem equally unconcerned that many of their Junior Officers feelings that the NATO forces and Karzi Government in Afghanistan are a danger to them as they are more Allies of India, and therefore Enemies of Pakistan.
Special Envoy Holbrook, Secretary of State Clinton, and our Joint Chiefs, have no greater concern than ensuring that Pakistan’s Nuke’s don’t fall into Radical Islamist’s hands, and that the shaky Pakistan Government is able to maintain control of their Military, and gain some legitimacy among their populace. What are Your Thoughts on This Situation? Thanks for Playing, HV.
Here is a link to Fareed Zakaria’s Interview with SecDef Robert Gate’s, Today’s best discussion regarding the Pakistani Issues.
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