The Panderer Forgets the Panzers

Thursday, Barack Obama took another opportunity to offer hopeful generalities and feel good propaganda to the German people and to the world, and he chose to do so at the foot of the Victory Column in Berlin. This monument, known as the Siegessäule, is rife with Nazi symbolism.

From Spiegel online:

“The Siegessäule in Berlin was moved to where it is now by Adolf Hitler. He saw it as a symbol of German superiority and of the victorious wars against Denmark, Austria and France,” the deputy leader of the Free Democrats, Rainer Brüderle, told Bild am Sonntag. He raised the question as to “whether Barack Obama was advised correctly in his choice of the Siegessäule as the site to hold a speech on his vision for a more cooperative world.”

Advised correctly? Perhaps it would be fitting that a candidate for President who aspires to lead our nation out of the darkness and, grandiosely, to “heal our planet,” take a moment, for once, to do his own homework.

Senator Obama states:

Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet at the center of a Europe at peace.

It was a monument Hitler liked to gaze upon.

Andrea Schockenhoff of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats said, “the Siegessäule in Berlin is dedicated to a victory over neighbors who are today European friends and allies. It is a problematic symbol.”

Obama also makes sure to include this statement in his opening remarks:

I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.

For a man who consistently presents himself as the post-racial candidate, Senator Obama is always bringing up race. Since that is once again the case here, let me offer a comparison that might make the insensitive location of his speech more clear to him.

Can you imagine if a white politician gave a speech while standing before a 30-foot rendering of the Confederate flag? How about a burning cross?

Let us put location aside for the moment. His speech, which contains positive and positively vague concepts for how we must work to tear all walls down as part of the global community, is the usual pablum; fine as far as it goes. No specifics are offered, just a photo op for Obama to enjoy adulation and applause of thousands for clearing his throat.

What is not fine is this statement:

People of the world – look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

“On the field of battle?” That sounds so honorable! Like two worthy adversaries fighting over a plot of land or a political principle. Look at Berlin, indeed.

His feel good moment designed to pander to his current audience, just as he seeks to pander to any audience for whom he performs, conveniently omits the harsh reality that we were not battling an honorable adversary. We were battling Nazi Germany. You remember: the people responsible for exterminating millions of Jews.

How nice of Senator Obama to leave out any mention of the holocaust so he wouldn’t make the German people gathered for “Obamafest” feel bad, while vendors were busy selling souvenir buttons depicting him in lederhosen holding a bunch of beer steins.

Instead he chooses to dwell on the Berlin Wall and raised the specter of the Cold War. He makes the Russian people the bad guys in this equation for splitting up Berlin and making half of it communist – suddenly the ‘Wall’ is the culprit. Yes, but surely, there were other culprits.

He fails to mention in his speech that the Russians were allied with the United States against the Germans – the true enemy in World War II.

Obviously, as the child of a holocaust survivor it is important to me that this fact not be forgotten. Although my father could never forgive the German people, even at the time of his death, I vowed I would never live a life carrying old hatred with me. I would not make his legacy mine. So let me be clear, it is certainly not hatred for the German people living today that prompts my statements; quite the contrary.

The present world will never be able to apologize for the past one.

Nevertheless, I will not excuse revisionist history for the convenience of Obama crafting a sound bite around the concept of “walls coming down.” He cannot omit the fact that the Soviets did fight by our side in this cause. The Soviet tanks he complains of in his speech were also used against the Nazis.

Senator Obama also conveniently forgets how many concentration camps were liberated by the Soviets, including the largest concentration camp of all, Auschwitz – the one that Obama falsely claimed his uncle helped to liberate when he was, again, pandering to a Jewish audience a couple of months ago.

Whatever Russia’s motives, the fact remains that they were very instrumental in breaking Hitler’s back and bringing a faster end to the war – a fact it is most inappropriate for Obama to forget simply because it does not coincide with the narrative of his pretty platitudes.

Once again, Obama works to make his current audience feel comfortable, forgiving them any past transgressions, much as Shelby Steele’s brilliant piece in the Wall St. Journal pointed out in this statement regarding Obama’s success with white voters:

“Mr. Obama’s great political ingenuity was very simple: to trade moral leverage for gratitude. Give up moral leverage over whites, refuse to shame them with America’s racist past, and the gratitude they show you will constitute a new form of black power. They will love you for the faith you show in them.”

Yes, Senator, reward those Americans that vote for you with your ‘approval.’ But those who criticize – they will enjoy a different fate altogether:

Senator Obama and his surrogates have shamelessly played the race card throughout this campaign to great advantage, even unjustly labeling President Clinton, of all people, a racist. Obama even has Governor Kathy Sebelius, in a shameless statement she surely knows to be false, proclaiming that citing Obama’s ‘inexperience’ is code for racism. The press is cowed for fear any criticism of Obama will label them racist. He enjoys a protective shield, if you will, the likes of which I have never seen.

How fortunate for Germany, not having criticized Obama as some of us have here in the U.S., that they likewise get feel good rhetoric and a poster to take home.

Certainly, slavery is a horrible stain on our flag that cannot be erased. Likewise, no matter how much forgiveness we may feel and show now towards Germany and her allies, the fact remains that these atrocities happened a mere 63 years ago. They deserve a mention, don’t you think?

Obviously, the United States does not get a pass on slavery. But the Germans, and by extension all those who stood by and did nothing, get a pass on the extermination of millions? That is a frightening double standard and I am not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

If there are any honest journalists left, perhaps someone will be forthright and decent enough to hold Senator Obama accountable. I won’t hold my breath.

I seem to recall that eight years ago, another man, a self-proclaimed “uniter,” with generalized, compassionate rhetoric, similarly got a sweetheart ride in the press and turned out to be no more than a snake oil salesman. We were then saddled with eight years of the worst leadership imaginable.

They say those who pay no attention to history are doomed to repeat it. Senator Obama is obviously very comfortable turning his back on history lessons. Let’s hope the same is not true of us.