A Word to the times: D-Day, Eisenhower/Israel's spirit

Here are some current “words to the times.”

This coming Saturday, June 6 is the 65th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, known as D-Day;  the first operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944.  President Obama will be the star visitor at Saturday's commemoration ceremony landings in Normandy that helped turn the tide of World War II. The operation was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 160,000 troops landing on June 6, 1944. 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships were involved. General Dwight Eisenhower, was the Supreme Commander of the allied forces.

Following the war, Eisenhower subsequently became the 34th President of the United States from 1953-1961.

In light of his military history and as President, the Commander in Chief of all military forces, I thought the following, not often quoted statement by Eisenhower is food for thought as we reflect on this historic moment:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers; the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

The Honorable Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969
34the President of the United States
Supreme Commander, Integrated European Defense Forces
From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16,1953

 “I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” (Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36 (New Living Translation)

 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Jesus Christ) Matthew 5:9 (New International Version)

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Speaking at a Holocaust remembrance service recently in Jerusalem, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Ahmadinejad's  (President of the Islamic Republic of Iran)address (at the United Nations)"constitutes an acceptance of racism, rather than the fight against it."

"It is hard to fathom why despots such as Hitler the Nazi, Stalin the Bolshevik and Ahmadinejad the Persian chose the Jews as the main target for their hatred, their madness and their violence," Peres said. "Perhaps they targeted the Jewish people because of its spiritual power - a nation poor in material possessions, but rich in values -- for he who is infected with megalomania fears the power of the spirit." (Shimon Peres)

“Remember the LORD in a distant land,  and think on Jerusalem." Jeremiah 51:50 (New International Version)

Thanks folks,
 

Scott Ross