Linkage:
Morrissey: Memorial Day hero: SSgt Robert J. Miller, US Army
LAT: A U.S. military worth saluting
Political Wire:The Epicenter of the Cold War
From the new book Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe.
From the author: “I want Americans to understand how the decisions of their presidents — then and now — shape world history in ways we don’t always understand at the time of a specific event. I want readers to know that Kennedy could have prevented the Berlin Wall, if he had wished, and that in acquiescing to the border closure he not only created a more dangerous situation — but also contributed to mortgaging the future for tens of millions of Central and Eastern Europeans. The relatively small decisions that U.S. presidents make have huge, often global, consequences.”
The American Interest: Memorial Day: The War in Iraq
Gallup: U.S. Military Personnel, Veterans Give Obama Lower Marks
As inscribed on the walls at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.:
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-
field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate…we cannot
consecrate…we cannot hallow…this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it
far above our poor power to add or detract. The world
will little note nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us…that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom; and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
November 19, 1863
God bless all members of the Armed Forces, past and present.
Thanks for the booknote! I’ll be getting that one. I wish more would tell the truth about Kennedy. Professor Howard Jones’ book about the Bay of Pigs also sheds some light about some of the very bad decisions that were made, and bascially doomed the plan. I believe Kennedy loved his country, but he was really inept in a lot of situations.
and just think those genious words just scratched out on a paper bag…when he gave that address…incredible