Nile Gardiner: Berlin: Four Key Reasons why the President stayed away
[Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR.]
Barack Obama was quick off the mark last year in heading for Berlin during his election campaign, when he was cheered by a crowd of 200,000 adoring Germans. Yet as president of the United States he has decided to stay away from Berlin as the city commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have both made the trip to Germany, while President Obama has decided to send his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
It is shameful when the US president can’t even be bothered to show up at a ceremony marking one of the most momentous events of modern times. As Rich Lowry wrote in his column for National Review, “Obama’s failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency.” Newt Gingrich put it well when he described Obama’s foolhardy decision as “a tragedy”. Writing in The Washington Examiner, Gingrich declared:
“To commemorate, after all, is to remember. And Americans need to remember, not just that the Wall fell, but why it fell. We need to remember that the Berlin Wall was the symbol of more than just the Cold War, more than just the division of Europe. It was the symbol of an evil ideology that denied human dignity, denied truth, and respected only power. When the Wall fell, truth and human dignity, in a rare moment in the 20th century, triumphed over power. But that victory is not permanent.”
In my view, Barack Obama’s absence from Berlin today can be explained by four key factors:
1) Obama is uncomfortable with the idea of American greatness
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the direct result of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher’s determination to confront and defeat Soviet communism. Barack Obama is distinctly uncomfortable with the notion of celebrating the successes of American global power. Practically every speech he has given on foreign soil since taking office has been marked by an apology or apologies for America’s past. A recognition of American leadership, especially an acknowledgement of Ronald Reagan’s leadership, would have been an awkward moment for a US president who seems ashamed of American greatness and exceptionalism.
2) Obama attaches little importance to the advancement of human rights on the world stage
The Wall’s downfall symbolized the defeat of a brutal ideology, Communism, that enslaved hundreds of millions in Europe. It marked the end of a dictatorial regime in East Germany that oppressed its own people under the auspices of an evil Empire. Barack Obama simply does not view the world as Reagan did, in terms of good versus evil, as a world divided between the forces of freedom on one side and totalitarianism on the other. For the Obama administration the advancement of human rights and individual liberty on the world stage is a distinctly low priority, as we have seen with its engagement strategy towards the likes of Iran, Burma, Sudan, Venezuela and Russia...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
Barack Obama was quick off the mark last year in heading for Berlin during his election campaign, when he was cheered by a crowd of 200,000 adoring Germans. Yet as president of the United States he has decided to stay away from Berlin as the city commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have both made the trip to Germany, while President Obama has decided to send his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
It is shameful when the US president can’t even be bothered to show up at a ceremony marking one of the most momentous events of modern times. As Rich Lowry wrote in his column for National Review, “Obama’s failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency.” Newt Gingrich put it well when he described Obama’s foolhardy decision as “a tragedy”. Writing in The Washington Examiner, Gingrich declared:
“To commemorate, after all, is to remember. And Americans need to remember, not just that the Wall fell, but why it fell. We need to remember that the Berlin Wall was the symbol of more than just the Cold War, more than just the division of Europe. It was the symbol of an evil ideology that denied human dignity, denied truth, and respected only power. When the Wall fell, truth and human dignity, in a rare moment in the 20th century, triumphed over power. But that victory is not permanent.”
In my view, Barack Obama’s absence from Berlin today can be explained by four key factors:
1) Obama is uncomfortable with the idea of American greatness
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the direct result of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher’s determination to confront and defeat Soviet communism. Barack Obama is distinctly uncomfortable with the notion of celebrating the successes of American global power. Practically every speech he has given on foreign soil since taking office has been marked by an apology or apologies for America’s past. A recognition of American leadership, especially an acknowledgement of Ronald Reagan’s leadership, would have been an awkward moment for a US president who seems ashamed of American greatness and exceptionalism.
2) Obama attaches little importance to the advancement of human rights on the world stage
The Wall’s downfall symbolized the defeat of a brutal ideology, Communism, that enslaved hundreds of millions in Europe. It marked the end of a dictatorial regime in East Germany that oppressed its own people under the auspices of an evil Empire. Barack Obama simply does not view the world as Reagan did, in terms of good versus evil, as a world divided between the forces of freedom on one side and totalitarianism on the other. For the Obama administration the advancement of human rights and individual liberty on the world stage is a distinctly low priority, as we have seen with its engagement strategy towards the likes of Iran, Burma, Sudan, Venezuela and Russia...