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Bambi refuses trip to Normandy to avoid insulting Germans
From last week's Telegraph but we didn't comment on it then.
Barack Obama, concerned about offending Britain and Germany, rebuffed strenuous attempts by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to persuade the new American president to make a trip to Normandy this week.

White House officials travelled to France at the start of March to discuss a visit by Mr Obama to Omaha Beach, the site of the American Cemetery, established in 1944 just after D-Day and where 9,387 American personnel are buried. Among them is Theodore Roosevelt Jr the eldest son of the 26th US President.

French officials and senior American military officers walked with White House staff through the cemetery discussing how the two presidents might follow the same route. But even before their trip, the White House had decided that Mr Obama would not travel there this week.

"It wasn't going to happen," said an American official in Washington. "We went through the motions to placate President Sarkozy but giving special treatment to France was not on our agenda.
But we did get Nick a nice set of Jerry Lewis DVDs ...
"During this trip, we wanted to maintain a balance between the British, German and France".

A White House spokesman in London declined to comment.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-04-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=267116