Solace for a nation gone astray

[dArKeR]

Bush's rhetoric on the war in Iraq and the war on terror has little to do with the spirit of D-Day and everything to do with internalizing national myths

By Martin Kettle
THE OBSERVER , London
Saturday, Jun 05, 2004,Page 9


The 60th anniversary of D-Day promises moments of unique poignancy. By 2014, so it is generally understood, the ranks will be too thin and the survivors too frail for the veterans of 1944 to muster in France again. So this weekend will mark the last rallying of the liberators. And that means that never again will the leaders of the Western nations travel to the Normandy beaches to address them.

Please, let it be so. In saying this, I mean not one jot of disrespect for the fallen or their comrades. No, it's the commemoration -- not what it commemorates -- that is the problem. For, with the benefit of hindsight, the 50th anniversary celebrations of D-Day in 1994 were a well-intentioned disaster that has not done the world many favors.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/06/05/2003173850

[Miss Authoritiva]

1. I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this column.

My late father took part in the D-Day invasion, a 20 year old so homesick he was unable to feel fear. But Kettle makes several sharp observations. And I do agree that "it's the commemoration -- not what it commemorates -- that is the problem."

Like everything else on the planet, the anniversary celebrations are ripe for exploitation -- especially for cheap media programming and for cheap political piggybacking. And Bush's repetitive use of the words "generation" and "sacrifice" since 9/11 is shameless. Someone should tell his speechwriters and his handlers: It's not the same.