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From: bill@hpfcms.UUCP (bill)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Re: Pin the blame on the Germans
Message-ID: <43400005@hpfcms.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-May-85 14:18:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpfcms.43400005
Posted: Fri May 10 14:18:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 20-May-85 08:37:20 EDT
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Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Fort Collins, CO
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Nf-From: hpfcms!bill    May 15 10:18:00 1985

>Side Note:
>     As for the Reagan's gig in Bitburg, I think it should have been cancelled
>because it does amount to forgiving the Nazis.
>Thomas Andrews

Baloney.  Reagan was bridging a wide gap left by the past.  He was simply
showing his respect for those who died for the German cause.  After all, the
war took great tolls on BOTH sides.  Are we more human than they?  Shouldn't
their dead be mourned for just the same as ours?  As has been mentioned before,
very few of the bodies in that graveyard were those of Nazis.  As our president,
Reagan was just trying to improve relations with the German people by mourning
the great loses BOTH sides took.  He in no way condoned the actions of the
Nazis, nor forgave them.  He was simply saying that the past can't be changed,
we're different people now, and we can be friends.

Sheesh!  I hate it when people try to read more into a presidential act than
there is.  Reagan has repeatedly denied any "forgiving" or condoning of the
Nazi actions.  One of the responsibilities of the president is to further
foreign relations.  That's all Reagan was trying to do.

Anyway, it's over now, and no harm was done.  Actually, it was a success,
because it left foreign relations with the German people in good shape.
Leave it alone.

Bill Gates