Reflection on Barack Obama's Speech in Germany

No, this is not a picture of Barack Obama in Berlin, it's from the primary. When I found this picture, I thought it was a little odd, so I saved it. Little did I know then, that Sen. Obama would make a campaign speech in Germany. At his Tiergarten event, Obama referred to the USA and Germany as "historic allies." I was a little creeped out by that. From what he said you would have thought we had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our German cousins during the perils of two world wars.

I am glad that Germany has rejoined the family of nations in giving its citizens human rights, but there are many older Americans (and Britons for that matter) who remain very suspicious of Germany. While it is nice to move beyond the prejudices of the last century, I personally found Sen. Obama's Berlin campaign event in quite poor taste.