Article

2004-04-07 Europe

Euro partnership mocks 60th D-Day anniversary, says invasion veteran

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Posted by Anonymous2U 2004-04-07 00:01|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 hehehehehe first!

Posted by Anonymous2U 2004-04-07 12:01:58 AM|| 2004-04-07 12:01:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 "It wasn't like that 10 years ago. This year, I believe [President Jacques] Chirac even invited German troops to take part in the march past.
"It seems all wrong to be marking the liberation in that way."

The understatement of the year.

Posted by Rafael 2004-04-07 12:16:17 AM|| 2004-04-07 12:16:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Good read. You go Gramps!

Posted by B 2004-04-07 7:19:13 AM|| 2004-04-07 7:19:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 If Germans can't celebrate D-day, does that mean that Iraqis shouldn't be celebrating the fall of Saddam?

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2004-04-07 9:04:20 AM|| 2004-04-07 9:04:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Read it again Aris...you missed his point.

""I think we should have stopped after 50 years," said Lt Col Terence Otway, who commanded the 9th Parachute Btn as it attacked a crucial German battery at Merville, near Caen, shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944.

"In 1994, we were celebrating the liberation of the French from the Germans."

The guy makes a valid point. It's a memorial to the dead who liberated Europe, not a celebration of the future rise of a new Franco/German controlled EU - whose leaders joyously spit in the faces of the country that helped to free them.

I'm guessing that if he wasn't 90, he'd go to honor the dead, but he probably feels the lack of respect afforded by those countries to our soldiers renders the "honor" of the event meaningless and unworthy of his 90 year old effort.

Posted by B 2004-04-07 9:43:43 AM|| 2004-04-07 9:43:43 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Aris

Stop being hypocritical please. The analog to the fall of Saddam is May, 8 ie end of war. D-Day is about people being killed for the liberation of Europe. Inviting the people who killed them is grossly improper. Anyway, only the leaders of the countries who made 99% of the dying ie USA, UK, Canada had the right to extend an invitation. Chirac has lost an occasion to shutup. You too.

Posted by JFM 2004-04-07 10:25:30 AM|| 2004-04-07 10:25:30 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Aris.

By your logic, the French should celebrate the battle of Waterloo.

Posted by Infidel Bob 2004-04-07 10:59:29 AM|| 2004-04-07 10:59:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 Napoleon was not a Hitler or a Saddam.

Posted by Liberalhawk 2004-04-07 11:00:52 AM|| 2004-04-07 11:00:52 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 That's debatable.

Posted by Infidel Bob 2004-04-07 11:05:33 AM|| 2004-04-07 11:05:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 JFM> "Inviting the people who killed them is grossly improper"

I somehow think that in any future celebrations of the start of the invasion of Iraq, some Iraqi leaders will also be invited, even though it was mostly Iraqis that were killing Americans.

Infidel Bob> The modern-day Germans are glad that Hitler got defeated. Deal.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2004-04-07 11:47:49 AM|| 2004-04-07 11:47:49 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 Aris

Not sure I'd bet the ranch on that one, either.

Posted by Infidel Bob 2004-04-07 11:55:17 AM|| 2004-04-07 11:55:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#12 Having been in Germany a little and knowing at least a few Germans, Aris is right -- modern-day Germans are horrified at what their fathers/grandfathers did (yes, yes, I know the Ossies aren't fully reconstructed). But the Germans I know are resolute in ensuring that Germany never, ever again does anything that approaches what the Nazis did.

Posted by Steve White 2004-04-07 12:39:16 PM|| 2004-04-07 12:39:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Steve

Having been in Germany and having met the most lovable people I have ever met I still stand on my position. However lovable they are, whatever horror they feel, their place is not at D-Day ceremonies. They can be present at Victory over Nazism (and peace) but not at D-Day.

Aris

Read again slowly. Do it five hundred times until you undarstand. This is about D-Day not about the end of the war who is usually something positive (peace), even for the losing side. It is about people getting killed. And now read also this a five hundred times: Chirac can invite who he pleases at ceremonies for Verdun, he cannot extend invitations at D-Day, and certainly not do it from its own initiative, unilaterally.

Posted by JFM 2004-04-07 5:42:30 PM|| 2004-04-07 5:42:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 JFM> I said: "I somehow think that in any future celebrations of the start of the invasion of Iraq, some Iraqi leaders will also be invited, even though it was mostly Iraqis that were killing Americans."

So YOU read it again, as often as you need to in order to understand it. You talked about the start of an invasion, I talked about the start of an invasion. Cheers!

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2004-04-07 7:42:49 PM|| 2004-04-07 7:42:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 So, I guess this means we won't be inviting the Japanese to our Pearl Harbor remembrances anytime soon?

Posted by Zenster 2004-04-07 10:34:49 PM|| 2004-04-07 10:34:49 PM|| Front Page Top

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