D-Day – June 6, 1944: The Meaning of the Supreme Sacrifice of Heroes and Guardians of Freedom

 

Let Our Hearts Be Stout – Roosevelt D-Day Prayer

My Fellow Americans,

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest – until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home – fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them – help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too – strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment – let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – June 6, 1944

The Trilateral Strategic Dialogue between USA, Japan and Australia

Foreign policy analysts Michael Auslin, Zhu Feng, Rory Medcalf, Sheldon W. Simon, Akihiko Tanaka, and William Tow, from the National Bureau of Asian Research, released a report on the new American strategic partnership with Japan and Australia.

“In response to changes in the Asia-Pacific region, including the rise of China and nontraditional security threats, U.S. strategic thinking has begun to look beyond the traditional hub-and-spoke model of postwar U.S. alliances and formulate new agreements such as the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD).

Washington has joined Canberra and Tokyo in a dialogue designed to focus their bilateral relationships on joint regional concerns. Initiated in 2005, the TSD agenda has remained focused on more narrowly defined security concerns, including maritime security, nonproliferation mechanisms, counterterrorism, and missile defense. At a minimum, the United States is pushing for the enhancement of information exchange on these issues as well as for sharing strategic assessments with Japan and Australia in order to have similar regional pictures.

Engaging Japan in TSD discussions over common threats and common responses can serve to help further refine the goal of globalizing the U.S.-Japan alliance, as seen in TSD-initiated joint military exercises held among the three countries.”

Read full story.

Remembering the 1938 Munich Agreement: The Legacy of Appeasement

Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour. They chose dishonour. They will have war. (Winston Churchill to Neville Chamberlain in the House of Commons, 1938)

A week long series of events commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the infamous Munich Agreement and its implications for our times

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 7:30 pm: The Road to Munich:  An Historical Overview
Panelists: Prof. Jeffrey Blutinger (Cal State University Long Beach), Prof. Harry V. Jaffa (Chapman University School of Law), Prof. Randy Willoughby (University of San Diego) Moderator: Prof. Michael Bazyler (Chapman University School of Law)
Location: Chapman University School of Law, Orange County

Thursday, September 25, 2008 7:30 pm:
The Price of Peace: Are We Entering a New Period of Appeasement?
A discussion featuring  Robert Spencer (author) and Cliff May (President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies).
Location: Ackerman Union, UCLA.

Friday, September 26, 2008 11:00 am: Press Conference
Featuring  former prime ministers  John Howard (Australia) and Petr Pithart (Czech Republic) and Czech survivors of World War II.
Location: Museum of Tolerance.

Sunday, September 28, 2008 12:30 – 2:30 pm: 
A Remembrance: Munich – The Legacy of Appeasement
Featuring the reflections and commentry of leaders from around the world.
Location: Grand Salon, InterContinental Hotel, Century City.

Sunday, September 28, 2008 2:30 pm:
Reception and award of the Winston S. Churchill Medal of Freedom to John Howard and the Tomáš Masaryk Award to Petr Pithart.
Location: Garden Court, InterContinental Hotel, Century City.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Global Action to Save Global Growth

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes on the eve of the coming G8 summit that this is the moment to prove that we can cooperate globally to deliver results: in meeting the needs of the hungry and the poor, in promoting sustainable energy technologies for all, in saving the world from climate change – and in keeping the global economy growing.

Read full story.

China’s Naval Ambition

In an op-ed in the Australian newspaper The Age, Dr. Paul Monk, former intelligence officer and author of Thunder from the Silent Zone – Rethinking China, argues that China is using its new naval base on Hainan Island to send the U.S. a message about its naval ambitions.

“China is set to challenge US dominance in the Pacific by 2050. According to naval intelligence sources in London and Washington and a recent MI6 briefing to Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, China is building a massive, highly secure naval base at Sanya on Hainan Island.”

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Subprime Crisis

Germany’s finance minister said to ministers from the Group of Seven financial leaders that total financial losses from subprime mortgages could top $400 billion and that central banks may need to make more emergency cash injections.

The comments come amid speculation that the European Central Bank may be increasingly willing to cut rates. Thus far it has stood pat as the U.S. Fed and the Bank of England have made cuts.

Big U.S-China Mining Venture

China’s Chinalco and the U.S. company Alcoa have teamed up to buy a 12 percent stake in Rio Tinto, a global mining company.

The Financial Times calls it “the largest ever Chinese outbound investment and the largest ever cross-border deal involving a Chinese company.”

Read full story.

APEC makes plans for free-trade zone excluding India

President George W. Bush will attend today’s meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Sydney.

Bloomberg says the talks will include efforts to launch a free-trade zone across the region, but notes that a number of Asian countries are keen to exclude India from such a project initially.

Read full story.

World Markets Tsunami

Miscalculation and poor regulation combined to create a rather large mountain out of the mole hill of sub-prime housing loans in the United States, and the collapse of that mountain has produced a tsunami of reaction around the globe.

Among the far flung results, a threat to Australia’s treasurer, a warning from British Land that commercial property, too, may be at risk, the collapse of a Canadian financial services firm.

Only Asia, so far, appears largely unaffected, but whether that will last is anyone’s guess. SeekingAlpha, an excellent blog founded by a former Morgan Stanley trader, sees Asia’s exposure as limited.

Read full story.

ADDENDUM: Only because it’s Friday would we dare to say: HIRAM7 REVIEW told you so, in March 2007.

The European Union and China

In a Lowy Institute for International Policy report, Roberto Menotti of the Aspen Institute examines the European Union’s policy responses to the rise of China.

The EU is a newcomer to East Asian affairs, but its stake in the region is growing rapidly in light of China’s economic clout. The European approach to China’s rise differs profoundly from that of the US, due to geopolitical realities and a general belief in the benign effects of economic interdependence.

Roberto Menotti argues, however, that the EU has so far failed to pursue a coherent common policy, as seen in the debate in 2004-2005 over Europe’s decision to revoke the arms ban on China. He suggests that one problem of the European approach has been the fuzzy distinction between multilateralism (an international methodology) and multipolarity (a particular type of international system).

Download the report.

Dow-Jones-Konzern ist käuflich

In der Frankfurter Rundschau schreibt Henrik Schmitz zum Verkauf des ehrwürdigen New Yorker Wall Street Journals.

“Mit dem Dow-Jones-Verlag kauft sich Murdoch Wirtschaftskompetenz ein, die er unter anderem für den Aufbau eines Wirtschaftssenders unter dem Dach der Senderkette Fox nutzen könnte. Das WSJ ist dabei nicht nur die US-Zeitung mit der zweithöchsten Auflage, sie verfügt auch über einen Kundenstamm von rund 730.000 zahlenden Online-Abonnenten aus Kreisen betuchter Manager. Das Internet ist Murdochs neuestes Hobby, hier sieht er die Zukunft. Unternehmen, die eine glorreiche Vergangenheit als Schutzschild gegen die Kräfte der Veränderung betrachteten, würden untergehen, hatte Murdoch unlängst gesagt. Andere sehen gerade in Murdoch den Untergang für das Wall Street Journal.”

Artikel lesen.

Murdoch’s strategy for the Wall Street Journal

Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp won its $5.6 billion bid for Dow Jones, the company that owns the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal’s publisher said in a letter to readers that little will change at the paper. An International Herald Tribune (IHT) news analysis says a major indicator of Murdoch’s leadership will be his approach to spreading the paper’s brand internationally.

“His strategy will probably include aggressively undercutting advertising and investing heavily in editorial content – particularly in Washington and international news – absorbing losses at first to win the longer-term war.

“At its most ambitious, Murdoch’s vision for Dow Jones would establish The Journal as the rival to The Times in setting the daily news agenda of the country.”

Read full story.

Dow Jones board mulls deal

The board of Dow Jones & Company, which owns the US-American daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal, will tonight vote on a $5 billion bid for the company by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, despite lingering misgivings from the Bancroft dynasty, which currently owns a controlling stake of the company.

Read full story.

Mega-Mining Deal for Canada

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Group outbid Alcoa of the United States in a takeover deal for Canada’s biggest mining company – Alcan Inc. If finalized, the deal would create the world’s largest aluminum company.

Read full story.