Bitburg
When visiting Germany, Obama shunned plans to visit a concentration camp, instead insisting on a visit to a cemetery where Nazi SS soldiers are interred. Even after it became clear that no U.S. soldiers were buried at the cemetery, Obama defended his decision to visit the site and not to visit a concentration camp: “Hey, let’s remember that the soldiers in the Nazi SS were victims, just like the Jews killed in the Holocaust. They were forced to carry out Hitler’s orders, so I’m sure they suffered just as much.” Obama later, reluctantly, added a quick stop at a concentration camp to his itinerary.
Oh, no wait–I have that mixed up. It was Reagan who did everything I wrote about above. In 1985. But just think of how the right-wingers would be reacting if it had been Obama and not their savior!
Incredible anecdote, even for Reagan! It was also Reagan, and the Thatcher woman, who had Mandela classified as a “terrorist”.
I vaguely remember that. Back then you thought, well, people, even Reagan can’t really be like that. Was I ever naive.