Friday, June 06, 2014

Obama speaks at US war cemetery on D-day landings anniversary --- US president says storming of Normandy beaches by Allied troops turned the tide 'in that common struggle for freedom' --- The storming of the Normandy beaches by Allied troops 70 years ago turned the tide "in that common struggle for freedom", President Obama said in an address to veterans and dignitaries during the D-day commemorations in northern France. -- "America's claim – our commitment to liberty, to equality, to freedom, to the inherent dignity of every human being – that claim is written in blood on these beaches, and it will endure for eternity," he said in remarks prepared for delivery over the site he called democracy's beachhead. -- Obama spoke from the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where nearly 10,000 white marble tombstones sit on a bluff overlooking the site of the most violent fighting at Omaha beach on 6 June 1944. He described D-day in vivid terms, recalling that "by daybreak, blood soaked the water" and "thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand". -- "We come to remember why America and our allies gave so much for the survival of liberty at its moment of maximum peril," Obama said. "And we come to tell the story of the men and women who did it, so that it remains seared into the memory of the future world." -- The anniversary commemoration was a gathering point for world figures embroiled in a geopolitical crisis, with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, attending events alongside leaders who are standing against his aggressive moves into Ukraine. All eyes promised to be on Putin and Obama, who were expected to have some interaction during a lunch for world leaders at the Chateau de Benouville. -- Obama's speech during the morning ceremony came after he met privately with some of the dwindling number of surviving troops , along with those who have served since the terrorist attacks of September 11. He told the D-day veterans: "Your legacy is in good hands." -- The president said his grandfather served in Patton's army and his grandmother was among many women who went to work to support the war effort back home, in her case on a B-29 bomber assembly line. - More, Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/obama-speaks-us-war-cemetery-dday-landings-anniversary

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