D-Day 80th: Heroes Stand Tall, Biden Falls Flat

by Jeff Childers

Yesterday, to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of our heroic U.S. troops’ victories and sacrifices on the beaches of Normandy, France, CNN ran this awkwardly ironic headline: “Biden gives warning about democracy during D-Day 80th anniversary speech.”

 
The surviving D-Day veterans are getting up there, into triple digits. The youngest senior warrior in any article I saw was a sprightly 99. All over the U.S., local communities and veterans’ groups commemorated the famous battle and to mark the generational anniversary, Western leaders, celebrities, military folks, and surviving soldiers converged near the battle site in Normandy.

 
Former vice-president Biden was the day’s least interesting feature. Watching the various clips of the Nation’s top executive slowly maneuvering around the event was a nerve-wracking experience, like watching a video clip of a toddler crawling toward a busy intersection.

 
But the aged soldiers stole the show. Many of our troops still stood smartly in their uniforms for the proceedings. Biden faded in the background, looking older, frailer, more past his expiration date, and less alert than even the oldest attending warrior.

 
Inexplicably, the instant the proceedings ended, Biden stiffly shuffled off, leaving amused and dynamic French President Macron to cheerfully greet U.S. veterans. It was almost like Macron was trying to show Biden up.

 
Biden’s speechwriters swung for the fences and missed. The presidential address, a failed and inappropriate attempt to directly compare our sacrifices in World War II to the Proxy War in Ukraine, blew up on the launch pad like a jammed SCUD missile. Biden’s effort to draw the awkward comparison went on far too long.

One can only imagine what our heroic veterans must have been thinking.

During his speech, Biden read the teleprompter in his monotonal pugilistic shouting style. Here’s a small sample to give you the idea:

“In their hour of trial, the Allied forces at D-Day did their duty! Now the question for us is, in our hour of trial, will we do ours! We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than any point since the end of World War II, since these beaches were stormed in 1944! Now we have to ask ourselves: will we stand against tyranny! Against Evil! Against crushing brutality! Of the iron fist! Will we stand for freedom! Will we defend democracy! Will we stand together! My answer is yes! It can only be yes!”

It was loud, but unconvincing. One suspected that, if Biden ever does run into an iron fist, it will be all over. A feather fist would probably do the job just as well.

The attempted comparison was, to say the least, confusing. For one thing, during World War II, Russia was an ally who helped beat Hitler. And in doing so, Russia suffered the most casualties among the Allied forces.

Despite Biden trying to unheroically co-opt the day to make a defensive campaign speech, the event was — as it should have been — eclipsed by our glorious surviving D-Day veterans, whose attendance made a more profound and encouraging statement than anything the mumbler could have said.

Don’t take my word for it. Before endorsing Biden’s approved Ukraine War Narrative, the Economist’s story about yesterday’s D-Day Commemoration first recognized that the veterans were the real story:

 
The duty of defending freedom now falls to us, the generation who enjoyed the blessings of the longest peacetime period in modern world history. We will not let our courageous heroes down.

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