OK, stop the tape.
OK, roll the tape.
"Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof."Stop.
Barry, you rolled right past that little dust up called World War II which is the event that got us to Berlin in the first place. Berlin was the capital of Germany. We let the Russians "liberate" it in 1945 then we divvied it up into quarters and all that fun stuff. Problem was, the Sovs didn't like "talking" with us, so they up and built a wall and put a whole lot of hardware on the border and around the city leaving us with no options. Thank God, people like you had not been in charge or we would not have had the military to do the job.
OK, let's continue...
"People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one."Whoa...
So the world stood as one. Well, not quite, Barry. It took a very courageous American named Ronald Reagan (this link takes you to the text of a real speech given in Berlin), and equally courageous woman named Maggie Thatcher, and a Pope named John Paul II that refused to let western civilization drift under the yoke of the evil of communism. The rest of the world, including most of the citizens of Germany, didn't give a rat's ass! Reagan knew the Soviet economy was teetering and that we could push them over the edge because (listen closely BO!) planned economies run by the state don't work! Maggie kept a toe-hold for sanity in Europe and Pope John Paul brought the real hope of faith back to the darkness of communist controlled central Europe. OK, now that we've cleared that up, let's move on.
Obamuhhh wanders into the warm waters of global warming and some silliness about "thousands from all over the globe" that were killed on 9/11 and then delivers this whopper:
"In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common."Well, like the Hertz commercial says, "not exactly." The Germans have elected their most conservative Chancellor in half a century in Angela Merkel and the French have dropped the American hating Chirac and the dashing America bashing Villipen for Nicolas Sarkozy who campaigned for the job as an unashamed lover of the United States. A huge reason there is derision in Europe for the United States, above and beyond the usual amount of looking down their long Gallic noses at us, is because of people like YOU, Barry. Because you, and members of your party and mindset have repeatedly gone over there and bashed this country to the accepting cheers of the gathered throngs. Let's see if you can continue the pattern...
"Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?
People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions."
As Reagan would say, "there you go again." We're bad and morally inferior because we give a few bad-guys that want to kill millions a feeling of discomfort like drowning in the hopes that maybe, just maybe they will tell us something that might save the lives of millions. We haven't kept the "promise of liberty and equality for all our people...we've made mistakes...we haven't lived up to our intentions." And the throngs cheered "Hosannas!!!" to the rooftops at this wonderful admission. The same crowd that would be speaking Russian if American troops hadn't dug their ditches and held the line. It must be great for them to hear such bad mouthing of America coming from such an important figure!
One other small note - this guy would get nailed for plaigarism if he were in a college course. The "this is our moment" rift? Straight from Bono of U2 at a Live 8 event to stop world poverty.
The speech winds down from there with the usual "improbable hope" bit and concludes with "let us remake the world once again." I am breathless...not from the quality of the speech and the incredible depth he demonstrated in his knowledge...nope, I am breathless because this speech is the intellectual equivalent of having a pillow held forcefully over your face. All talk, no walk. But then, remember, it wasn't about the speech, it was about the image.
One final note from Barry's big adventure. There is a growing awareness of his arrogance and inability to "keep the common touch." This is demonstrated by his actions with the troops. In Germany, while he had time to work out at the Ritz Carlton and entertain 200,000 America haters in downtown Berlin, he couldn't make the time to visit our wounded warriors at the Military hospital...why? Well, he couldn't bring his press pals along for a photo op, so it wasn't worth the time.
Rumble on!