Instapundit: "A REMINDER FOR MEMORIAL DAY, from Frederick Kempe’s Berlin, 1961. “I want Americans to understand how the decisions of their presidents — then and now — shape world history in ways we don’t always understand at the time of a specific event. I want readers to know that Kennedy could have prevented the Berlin Wall, if he had wished, and that in acquiescing to the border closure he not only created a more dangerous situation — but also contributed to mortgaging the future for tens of millions of Central and Eastern Europeans. The relatively small decisions that U.S. presidents make have huge, often global, consequences.”Don't elect Presidents like the one you just did. And don't forget that Kennedy nearly got us blown up in the Cuban Missile Crisis, yet everyone worships him as a great President.
Posted at 2:07 pm by Glenn Reynolds "
And then there's Lincoln just to make it an equal opportunity bashing. Translated to today's terms the Civil War would have resulted in 5 MILLION dead. I suggest you go read this book. (And its prequel.) Isn't it interesting that somehow the idea that compensated emancipation would have been a better option is never examined? After all, the North had all the South's money from Lincoln's mercantilist Hamiltonian tariffs already...
And I won't go into what a different world we would live in today if Churchill had been listened to before it was nearly too late. And, no, I'm not a pacifist. One of my historical arguments is that Hitler should have been attacked when he first re-occupied the Rhineland...
Which reminds me: Orwell should be allowed a say on Memorial Day also. I bet you've never read that one have you? I have noted many times that Orwell has been flushed down his own memory hole...
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