Stardate 20040601.1007

(Captain's log): This coming weekend will be the 60th anniversary of the Normandy landing in France, and President Bush has little choice but to attend. It's almost as if he had received something like this in the mail:

Chirac will be the host, and he will act smug and superior. He will try to leverage the situation for his own benefit. Bush isn't going because he has any great urge to talk to Chirac. I suspect that Bush would much rather visit the dentist than to visit Chirac. As President of the United States, Bush will be in Normandy on June 6 to honor the Americans buried there, and he will have to tolerate humiliation by Chirac to do so. There's little he can do to avoid at least informally meeting with Chirac. He can't be rude even if Chirac is.

There are always speeches given after these kinds of informal meetings. Chirac has become a bit notorious for taking advantage of such speeches to blindside those who visit him. I remember at least one case where Tony Blair visited, and had to stand dispassionately while Chirac gave a speech which made clear that Chirac thought Blair was misguided. Doubtless Chirac intends to do the same to Bush this time. Don't be too surprised if Chirac's speech emphasizes how the Normandy landing was made by a multilateral coalition, and how important it is to maintain such alliances, and how the presence of American dead in Normandy shows the deep and eternal bond of friendship between France and the nation of cowboys who, quite naturally, really should listen to what their French friends advise them to do blah blah blah...

I have a little fantasy. I don't expect it to happen. But I imagine to myself Bush delivering this speech, when it is his turn at the microphone.

Sixty years ago, American soldiers fought on this ground to save it from fascism. They went overseas to a strange land, full of people speaking a strange and incomprehensible language, and they fought to save those people from brutal tyranny, and to prevent that tyranny from reaching the shores of their American homeland to threaten the loved ones they left behind. They liberated that nation, and then most of them went home. They fought not to create an empire, but to prevent creation of one.

Most of them went home afterwards, but some of them, too many of them, remained behind. Some of them, too many of them, never saw their loved ones again. They died here, and they were buried here, far from home. They rest forever among those they freed. They sacrificed everything to save people they did not know who were unable to save themselves. These men deserve to be honored for what they did, for what they believed, and for the price they paid.

They should rest among friends, among those who understand and are grateful for the sacrifice they made. They cannot know what we do, or what we say, but we still owe it to them to live up to the example they set for us. We owe it to them to not waste their sacrifice; we owe it to them to refuse to lightly discard the precious gift of liberty they gave everything to preserve. They should rest among friends who understand that no price is too steep for us to pay to preserve our liberty.

I am saddened that they have no such friends here. The grandsons of these men are once again fighting overseas in a strange land, which is full of people speaking a strange and incomprehensible language, in order to free those people from brutal tyranny and to prevent that tyranny from threatening their loved ones at home. I am saddened that these brave soldiers, who fought and died to free the people of a nation not their own, must now rest among people who condemn their grandsons as they, too, fight and die to free the people of a nation not their own. I am saddened that they must rest among people who feel only contempt for the values they died to preserve. I am saddened that the people these men died for do not believe anyone else should be given the precious gift of liberty they themselves were given by these dead soldiers. These men deserve better than that.

So when I return to Washington I will ask Congress for money to move them all back home, to the land they held dear, so they can rest forever among the people they loved. They will not see America when they arrive, but America will see them and will welcome them home. It is the least we can do for these soldiers who gave so much for us all. They should rest among people who love what they loved, who value what they valued, and who will if necessary fight to defend the liberty these men fought and died to defend.

Bush won't do anything like this. He will express gratitude and respect for the soldiers buried there and will avoid reference to current events. Chirac, on the other hand, will use the occasion to lecture Bush, and Bush will have no choice but to put up with it. And when I read about it, I'll grind my teeth. But there's nothing to be done about it. France holds some of our war dead hostage; the President must travel there to honor them. But I hate the fact that the people they died for scorn everything those soldiers believed, and that the French in their ingratitude and resentment now condemn exactly that which gave them their freedom to express that condemnation.

History she is a bitch.

Update 20040602: David Boxenhorn comments.