63 years ago today, the battle of Normandy began with the assault on Omaha Beach. I didn’t have any family involved in that invasion, or at least none that ever mentioned it — my uncles served in the Pacific and my Dad was in the Navy — but Joshuapundit did have an uncle that survived that day and writes a moving tribute to all those that rose up to that challenge.

Here are some excerpts from President Reagan‘s 1984 speech given at Point Du Hoc, the cliffs above Omaha Beach which is now a military cemetery in honor of those that were lost that day. Joshuapundit posts the entire speech along with his thoughts on Reagan and the current military.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. 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.

{…}

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.

{…}

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

One would like to think that the collective “we” have actually learned the lessons president Reagan mentions above; however, judging from the statements made at Sunday’s Democrat Presidential Debate some remedial learning is certainly in order. As “they” say, those that fail to learn from history . . .

Technorati Tags: battle of Normandy, Omaha Beach, President Reagan, Point Du Hoc

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 1:58 pm and is filed under History & Heros. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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