The American president, Joe Bidenlinked this Friday the heroism that his country’s troops showed 80 years ago in the fight against Nazi Germany with need to stop the current Russian aggression in Europe. And he highlighted: “They ask us to do our job, protect freedom”.
In a speech at one of the most symbolic points of the Normandy’s landing on June 6, 1944, Biden wondered if anyone doubts that the heroes of 80 years ago “They would like the United States to stand up against (Vladimir) Putin’s aggression here in Europe”.
“Does anyone doubt that they would move heaven and earth to defeat the current hateful ideologies?” Bien added in his speech at the Pointe du Hoca very place symbolic for the sacrifice of US troops during the Normandy landings, whose 80th anniversary was commemorated yesterday.
The same place was etched in the nation’s political memory in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan honored the “Pointe du Hoc boys” and drew a common cause between his almost unthinkable feat against the tyranny of Nazi Germany and the struggle of the then Cold War.
Now, Biden sought to channel both historic moments to promote his own vision of the country’s global role amid two grueling wars and the persistence of the former president donald trumpwho has continued to “lie” about his 2020 election loss and threatened to dismantle US commitments abroad.
“As we gather here today, it is not only to honor those who demonstrated such remarkable bravery on that day, June 6, 1944,” Biden said; while he highlighted: “It is listening to the echo of their voices. To listen to them because they are calling us. They ask us what we will do. They are not asking us to climb these cliffs. They ask us to stay true to what America represents”.
Although it was apparently an official speech, delivered a day after Biden commemorated the anniversary of the Normandy landings with solemn ceremonies alongside his allies, the comments were full of political connotations.
“They are not asking us to do their job,” Biden said of the “ghosts of Pointe Du Hoc.” “They ask us to do our job: protect freedom in our time, defend democracy, defend ourselves” from aggression abroad and at home, “to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”
With his speech, The Democrat follows the line of former President Ronald Reaganwho on June 6, 1984 remembered in that same place those “heroes” who “helped liberate a continent” and “end” the Second World War.
The Republican then advocated asserting American power against the Soviet Union. Biden instead warned against the temptation of international withdrawal, which he embodies in his opinion donald trumpand defended freedom and democracy.
“American democracy requires the hardest thing: believing that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. So democracy begins with each one of us,” said the 81-year-old president.
(With information from AFP, AP and EFE)
