Seen from the United States. “D-Day”: Biden warns against isolationism in Normandy
Joe Biden took advantage of the binational “D-Day” ceremony in Normandy, at the American military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, to “warn against isolationism” and its rise in the United States, underlines The Wall Street Journal. “Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and it is not the answer today,” declared the Democratic president, adding: “The price of unbridled tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave.”
An allusion to the geopolitical situation, particularly Ukraine’s fight against Russia, which Biden directly linked to the allies’ battle for freedom during World War II, observed The New York Times.
“According to Washington, the dark setting of Normandy (…) was intended to highlight the risks for Europe and the world if the resolve of the United States and its partners weakens and they let Putin prevail ”, writes the newspaper.
A message that the president, visiting France for five days, should have the opportunity to repeat Friday during a speech to Pointe du Hocwhere he will salute the sacrifice of the rangers to conquer German positions at the cost of heavy losses.
Trump in the background
By targeting isolationism, Joe Biden also has the political campaign across the Atlantic in mind: “while the elections are nearby in the United States, the presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump cast doubt on Washington’s long-term commitment to European allies who skimp on their military spending,” remember The Wall Street Journal.
As expected, the Democrat marked his difference by recalling the importance of alliances in his eyes. “What the Allies did together 80 years ago far exceeded anything we could have done separately. It was a vivid illustration of how alliances, real ones, make us stronger. I pray that we Americans will never forget this lesson.”
The last fighters of 1944
“As the Pax Americana fades, so does the living memory of the soldiers who fought to establish it, underlines the business newspaper. Only a few dozen veterans, often centenarians, found the strength to cross the Atlantic this year and visit the graves of their fallen brothers here.”
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to them, decorating eleven Americans with the Legion of Honor. “You are back home today, if I may say so,” he told them in English.
One of them offered advice to Joe Biden, sitting back in his wheelchair: “Avoid becoming old.”
