A craven dodges the center stage for freedom

I just read this great commentary in telegram.com of Worcester, Massachusetts. The non-authored article is entitled "Obama's absence" with a byline "Berlin is center stage for freedom." Yes, I have heard that Obama will not be in Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the torn down of the Berlin wall. But this article really pointed out all the significance of this event and why it is so regrettable that the President of the United States should choose to be chickened out from the historical celebration. Here's the article in full:

Modern history holds fewer dates with greater significance than Nov. 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall fell, signaling the beginning of the end to the Cold War, and the political, social and economic liberation of millions who had lived behind the Iron Curtain since the close of World War II.

Monday’s 20th anniversary will be a celebration not only for Germany — now reunified for a generation — but for all the nations and peoples who were able to put fears and divisions in the past and look to a more hopeful future. Berlin has been center stage in that process, and U.S. presidents have played vital roles upon that stage. Harry Truman’s approval of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 saved lives; John F. Kennedy’s 1963 speech in West Berlin declaring “I am a Berliner” gave hope to a city newly divided; and Ronald Reagan’s June 1987 challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” stands as one of the watershed moments of Cold War history.

It is regrettable that President Barack Obama has declined German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s invitation to attend Monday’s festivities at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Germany and the U.S., one-time bitter enemies, are now partners and friends. Mr. Obama’s absence won’t change that fact, but his presence at the head of the U.S. delegation would have been an eloquent reaffirmation of our nation’s commitment to freedom, and a fitting tribute to those who died trying to escape oppression during the wall’s 28-year history.

Surely, a president who could find time to go to Copenhagen to lobby on behalf of Chicago’s bid for the Olympics could have found time to go to Berlin, epicenter for the political earthquakes of 1989 that marked a new birth of freedom for Europe and the world.

Mmmm mmmm mmm, only a lame duck will chickened out from the center stage for freedom. Now we have an unmitigated evidence!

P.S.

In the readers comments to this article, a reader by the name "factsplz" made another good point: "how could Obama possibly appear at an event that highlights how great America is? America's greatness is NOT in his game plan."

P.P.S.

Now here's a totally different but equally valid view from a completely different viewpoint by Ellis Washington of WorldNetDaily that suggests why Obama can't go to Berlin. Mr. Washington has a lot to say. Here are the parts I like the most:

On Nov. 9, 1989, the torch of liberty was lit for more than a billion people (one-third of the world's population) when they started their path toward freedom with the fall of the Berlin Wall; a seemingly impregnable symbol of imprisonment that Khrushchev erected in 1961 to stop the exodus of East German citizens fleeing the slavery of communism for the freedom and liberty of democracy in West Germany.

Twenty years later, President Obama, as the anti-Reagan, is trying to rebuild the Berlin Wall brick by brick with fascist policies designed to undermine freedom of all Americas and the liberties of those people around the world yearning for a republic founded on the rule of law. Obama wants to place those same shackles Stalin put on the Soviet-bloc countries on America with his socialist health-care bill, which, if passed, would place government in our lives from cradle

to grave.

Washington Times Editorial has the same idea:

Some have criticized President Obama for not visiting Berlin to commemorate this historic moment, but he made the right choice. When Sen. Barack Obama wanted to speak at the venue during the 2008 presidential campaign, German Chancellor Angela Merkel thought the request "a bit odd." It still is. Mr. Obama was on the other side of the policy divide during the Reagan years, and if his party had remained in power, we have no doubt the Soviet Union would have lasted longer as a going concern. Mr. Obama should not attempt to associate himself with that historic moment, when a man with vision had the ability to see the future and the courage to realize it.

So he made the right choice to stay away all right. He can't possibily in the same league with Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan anyway. He is probably not a craven. He is just hoping to be a despot! Please, please God help America!

P. P. P. S.

Well, the whole world is joyfully commemorating the historical moment. Here we see in Taipei, Taiwan, the Republic of China, they are preparing to celebrate freedom and liberty from communist tyranny by unveiling a small section of the Berlin Wall that was given to the democratic government of Taiwan.