WAREGEM, Belgium - President Obama paid homage Wednesday to the American soldiers who died at Flanders Fields in the battles of World War I, which began 100 years ago and took the lives of hundreds of thousands.
Flanked by Belgium's prime minister, Elio Di Rupo, and its king, Philippe, the great-grandson of King Albert, who led Belgium's fight against the Germans in the First World War, Mr. Obama laid a wreath and visited three graves: those of Stanislaw Labno, a private in the 91st Division of the American Army, and of Russell Swain and Norman Stein, two privates in the 27th Division.
'It is impossible not to be awed by the profound sacrifice they made so we could stand here today,' Mr. Obama said.
He noted the devastation that chemical weapons wreaked upon the Belgian battlefields when the Germans used them for the first time here, and he recalled the recent use of such weapons by Syria.
'We must never, ever take our progress for granted,' Mr. Obama said. King Philippe and Mr. Di Rupo both hinted at the lessons to be learned from the history of the battlefield in light of the current situation with Russia and Ukraine, though neither actually mentioned the crisis directly.
'Our countries have learned the hard way that national sovereignty quickly reaches its limits when met with heavily armed adversaries,' King Philippe said. Mr. Di Rupo said that 'those who ignore the past are taking the risk to relive it.'
Mr. Obama recited part of a famous poem, 'In Flanders Fields,' which was written in 1915 by John McCrae, a Canadian Army physician who was moved to describe the death that he witnessed on the battlefields. Mr. Obama said the final few lines were a plea to future generations.
'To you from failing hands we throw/The torch; be yours to hold it high,' Mr. Obama read. 'If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.'
Some years later, Mr. Obama said, an American teacher wrote a poem in response. It said, Mr. Obama recalled, 'We caught the torch.'
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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