The Queen, participant though she was in the original festivities, is not amused at being left out of the D-Day commemoration:
Indeed, she is decidedly displeased, angry even, that she was not invited to join President Obama and France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next week at commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, according to reports published in Britain’s mass-circulation tabloid newspapers on Wednesday. Pointedly, Buckingham Palace did not deny the reports.
The queen, who is 83, is the only living head of state who served in uniform during World War II. As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England.
The Brits plan to send Gordon Brown, which will only work if he doesn’t come back.
The off and on spat between Obama and the British–especially the monarch–is the strongest reflection of his Kenyan heritage. One thing that one discovers in talking to just about anyone who grew up or lived in a former British colony is a basic resentment of the Brits and British rule, rivalling the resentment that, say, the Southern Scotch-Irish feel towards their new masters in Washington. I think that’s transferred to Barack Obama–a dream of his father–and explains the many things that people feel threaten the “special relationship” between the US and the UK.
But, from a personal standpoint, I think that Obama should have skipped the celebration altogether. To start with, it’s not a “round number” celebration, but forced by the fact that many of the veterans won’t be around to celebrate the next one in 2014.
One of those was my father-in-law, who was almost blown to pieces near Utah Beach, spent the rest of his life 100% disabled, and died before the last one in 2004. When one looks at the current administration and its agenda, one wonders, FDR notwithstanding: is this really the same country now that he (and my father for that matter) fought for in 1941-5? And if it is now, will it be when Obama gets done?
Positive Infinity 