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From: ryan@fremen.DEC (Mike Ryan	DTN 264-8280 MK01-2/H32)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Bitburg - my 2 cents worth
Message-ID: <2041@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-May-85 18:11:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.2041
Posted: Mon May  6 18:11:05 1985
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Maybe I'm a little late getting into this discussion, but what the hell?

I can't believe I'm actually going to support Reagan (to a point), the
first time his Teflon has started to show a few scratches.  I guess I 
just like underdogs (being a lifetime Red Sox/Patriots fan, of course).
Worse yet, I'm even going to agree with alice!jj!

I think Reagan was correct in saying that his cemetary visit was 
"morally right".  For once he had (at least half of) a good idea - it's
time it was recognized that everyone involved paid a terrible price in
World War II (except Stalin, who got Eastern Europe out of it, not to mention
subjects more willing than ever to forgo freedom for the sake of
security, - but that's another story).  alice!jj is right in saying we
should forgive without forgetting, and I share his (her?) amazement at
the number of people who don't comprehend how one can do one without the 
other. Unfortunately, Reagan didn't take it far enough. 

What Reagan should have done was:

Visit a concentration camp to honor the millions of people maliciously 
tortured, experimented on, and slaughtered.

Visit a cemetary where members of the German Resistance and Allied war dead
were buried, honoring their struggle to end the evil.

Visit Dresden, to recognize the civilians who paid with their lives for
Hitler's thirst for world domination.

Visit a German military ceremony, recognizing the common men (and boys) forced
onto the battlefield by the Nazis.

If Reagan's itinerary had included all of the above from the beginning, I don't
see what objections could have been raised.

Mike Ryan
decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-fremen!ryan