Because he was on the road pushing his domestic agenda, the president dispatched White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice to speak at the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II ceremony at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., Friday morning. President Obama marked the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat with a tribute in his pre-recorded weekly address.
Rice, who is known to have intentionally misled the nation on a number of glaring occasions, made some grand assertions in her speech that may have applied to past administrations — but certainly not the present one. This was as empty and insultingly disingenuous a speech as one would expect from a member of the Obama’s administration.
With all the somber sincerity and earnestness she could muster, Rice declared that “[after] the horrors of Auschwitz, we as one world proclaimed: Never again.”
She honored “the brave men and women who served in World War II,” adding, “the story of your generation will never be forgotten. We will continue to tell it to children blessedly untouched by war. So that they understand, as this memorial reminds us, the price of freedom.”
The children of thousands of Iraq War vets who never came home might be surprised to hear that their lives were “untouched by war.”
In conclusion, Rice said:
We will continue to mark the passing of anniversaries like this one, so that memory never fades into complacency towards the evils in our world. We will carry on a march toward a world of greater rights and opportunities so that all men and women can live their lives in basic human dignity that your generation fought for — because while one mission was fulfilled in 1945, the cause of defending freedom is never finished. As President Truman put it, we must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world, to build an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law. That is the pledge we make again today and every day. And no matter how difficult the challenges that lie ahead, or what obstacles arise, we will never abandon this struggle. Because for all that has changed in the last seventy years, one thing never will; the United States will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of the world on the side of liberty and justice for all.
If I didn’t suspect that Rice cribbed this speech from one given thirty years ago — when all children’s lives in the United States were indeed untouched by war — I would suspect that by “basic human dignity” she was alluding to issues like “transgender rights” in school locker rooms. Because those are the types of values this administration actually fights for. Religious peoples facing persecution throughout the world, however, get the cold shoulder from this administration.
The citizens of Iraq — whose freedom the previous administration had secured — were abandoned by the Obama administration when he fulfilled his campaign promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country. The “complacency toward the evils in our world” Rice spoke of was replaced by something far worse — political expedience and quite possibly malice.
What was politically convenient to Obama was an unmitigated disaster for the people of Iraq, especially the religious minorities this president seems to have no interest in protecting.
In an appearance on Fox News a few months ago, Lt. Col Ralph Peters (Ret.) expressed his disgust in a passionate tirade condemning Obama for the ongoing slaughter of religious minorities throughout the Middle East:
The immediate target are Christians, Jews, Yazidis, other minorities — but especially Christians because Christian civilization in that region predates Islam. It’s been there for 2,000 years … The first 1000 years of Christianity, in the greater Middle East and North Africa — those were the cities where the saints — the theologians — there were far more Christians in the Middle East back then, than there were in Europe …
[B]ut what we are seeing now is an Islamist attempt to exterminate the last vestiges of Christian civilization in the Middle East. After the Holocaust of World War II the world said never again. But Bill O’Reilly is right, it’s happening again. It is a genuine holocaust against Christians.
These Christians are kidnapped. Our president does nothing.
Christians are tortured and even crucified publicly. Our president does nothing.
The Christian women are kidnapped and raped and raped again. Our president does nothing.
Christians are driven from their homes in the Middle East by the hundreds of thousands, slaughtered by the tens of thousands, and our president does nothing!
He is the reincarnation of Pontius Pilate washing his hands, but this blood is not coming off.
“The cause of defending freedom is never finished,” Rice intoned in her speech today. Very true — especially if you don’t even try.
Along with Rice, dignitaries and veterans commemorated the formal acceptance by the Allied forces of Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945 at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The president, for his part, commemorated a personal milestone today. His trip to South Dakota to give an address promoting his proposal for free community college made him the fourth president to set foot in all 50 states! For your enjoyment, the White House blog has posted a gallery of Obama visiting all 50 states. Are you not entertained?
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