Petrified Truth

D-Day Anniversary 2009

Sixty-five years ago, Allied forces landed in Normandy, France to start the final liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny.

Last year, Donald Sensing imagined the implications for history if the Allied landing had failed.

The specter of defeat on June 6, 1944 was overwhelmingly dreadful. The Allies had no other plans. There was no Plan B in case the landings were repulsed.

There are many "pivot" days in human history, when the course of human events swung in a new direction because of discrete actions. It is hard to find another moment in all history when so much rested on an outcome of one day as rested on the success of the Allies' landings on Normandy. In military history, no other day in American history compares.

A Houston-area veteran went back this week to be inducted into France’s Legion of Honor to commemorate the battle’s anniversary.

Decades passed before Houston’s Clyde Combs told his children he was part of the massive D-Day invasion when Allied troops fought past Nazi mines and machine guns to storm France’s beaches and march on to liberate Europe.

Neither did he mention he was aboard a superfast attack craft on June 6, 1944, and helped protect the west flank of invading forces as they established a beachhead, fished dead sailors out of the sea, and hunted for German soldiers fleeing in the darkness.

The 84-year-old former Navy PT boat crewman didn’t tell, he said, because he didn’t think anyone cared.

“It wasn’t considered a big deal,” said Combs, who still has a full head of hair and is probably lean enough to climb into his Cracker Jack uniform. “You were in the war, and you made it back and whatever,” he said. “No, I didn’t discuss it.”

Ronald Reagan spoke of their courage and sacrifice in 1984, and understood why they did what they did.

You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

Memorial Day 2009

On Memorial Day, we honor the fallen heroes from our armed forces and acknowledge the great sacrifices they and their families have made to preserve our freedoms.

At Arlington National Cemetery, more than 250,000 flags have been placed on grave sites to mark the day.

The tradition, known as “Flags In,” dates back to 1948, when soldiers of 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard,” began the annual Memorial Day tribute.

This year marked the sixth year company-size elements of sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen joined about 3,000 soldiers in placing a U.S. flag at the base of the gravestone and columbarium niche of every servicemember buried or inurned at Arlington.

Yesterday afternoon, the troops fanned out across the cemetery’s hills and valleys, carrying rucksacks bulging with bundles of flags. They approached each headstone, centering a miniature flag exactly one boot length from the base before sinking it into the ground.

“I can’t say how lucky I feel to have the opportunity to do this,” said Army Sgt. Daniel Sonntag, a member of the Old Guard’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion.

“Not many people get to do something like this,” said Sonntag, who deployed to Iraq with the 1st Infantry Division in September 2006 and has friends buried at Arlington. “This is something small we can do to honor those who have fallen before us. … It’s a way to recognize how important each one of these men and women here really was.”

Via Fox News Sunday yesterday, we learned about veteran extraordinaire Tom Day, who has organized Bugles Across America, a nationwide effort to ensure that a live bugler is available to play the 24 notes of Taps at every military funeral. Not only does he recruit volunteers across the country, he has provided horns, drums, uniforms and flags as needed, often at great personal cost. This family has made a donation to support this beautiful cause.

Jack Kemp, RIP

Jack Kemp, former NFL quarterback and long-time political visionary, has died of cancer. He was a thoroughly unconventional, sometimes wacky, politician, and an indomitable public figure. He'll be missed.

UPDATE: Bill Bennett remembers his friend and colleague:

Republican Analyst Bill Bennett told CNN Sunday that with the death of former GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, "we lost part of our heart today."

In 1993, the two men co-founded conservative think tank Empower America.

"Well, we lost part of our heart today, John, one of our great voices, one of our lions," he told CNN's John King on State of the Union. "You know, there's a lot of talk, these days, about who will be the next Ronald Reagan. A few of us were thinking, this morning, who will be the next Jack Kemp?"

Bennett praised Kemp's efforts to increase the diversity of the GOP and reach out to urban areas and minority voters.

"He led this party into the inner city and said freedom is for everybody; opportunity is for everybody; enterprise is for everybody," he said.

Star Trek

The new trailer (#3) for Star Trek seriously rocks. My expectations for May 8 are rising.

He looks like he needs a cigarette

This isn't exactly reassuring: Barack Obama 'too tired' to give proper welcome to Gordon Brown.

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been "overwhelmed" by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest. [...]

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama's inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to "even fake an interest in foreign policy".

Rookie mistakes can be even more dangerous than misguided ideology.

Thumbs down

The Wall Street Journal on The Obama Economy:

The market has notably plunged since Mr. Obama introduced his budget last week, and that should be no surprise. The document was a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy. Health-care stocks have dived on fears of new government mandates and price controls. Private lenders to students have been told they're no longer wanted. Anyone who uses carbon energy has been warned to expect a huge tax increase from cap and trade. And every risk-taker and investor now knows that another tax increase will slam the economy in 2011, unless Mr. Obama lets Speaker Nancy Pelosi impose one even earlier.

Meanwhile, Congress demands more bank lending even as it assails lenders and threatens to let judges rewrite mortgage contracts. The powers in Congress -- unrebuked by Mr. Obama -- are ridiculing and punishing the very capitalists who are essential to a sustainable recovery. The result has been a capital strike, and the return of the fear from last year that we could face a far deeper downturn. This is no way to nurture a wounded economy back to health.

The investor class votes "no confidence." John Galt, anyone? Oh yeah.

Stimulus fakery

So, President Obama held forth for an hour on national television tonight to sell his so-called "economic stimulus" plan. The transcript confirms further what we've been seeing for weeks now as he and congressional Democrats try to ram their scheme down our throats: the only way they can get this thing passed is through brazen falsehoods and the hope that the public won't wake up in time.

This, for example, is flatly untrue:

"It also contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so that every American will be able to go online and see where and how we're spending every dime. What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."

This is a misleading strawman:

"And if there's anyone out there who still doesn't believe this constitutes a full-blown crisis, I suggest speaking to one of the millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside-down because they don't know where their next paycheck is coming from."

Every day brings new revelations of cunning leftist provisions tucked into the package, like a stealth strategy to assert unprecedented control over our medical choices.

Congress, just say no.