Watch above: U.S. President Barack Obama paid tribute to American troops who died a century ago in the struggle to save Europe in World War I in a visit to Flanders Field in Belgium.
BRUSSELS, Belgium – With tensions running high in Europe, U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Flanders Field memorial in Belgium, and recited part of a famous Canadian poem in a call for a recommitment to peace.
Obama travelled to Brussels to shore up commitments he received from allies in The Hague, Netherlands, to reassure Eastern European members of NATO that the alliance will stand by them and to make a larger point about European security a quarter-century after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Obama said that he wants to see every NATO partner “chip in” for mutual defence and that the members should examine their defence plans to make sure they reflect current threats.
“I have had some concerns about a diminished level of defence spending by some of our partners in NATO,” Obama said.
“The situation in Ukraine reminds us that our freedom isn’t free.”
With tensions running high on the continent, Obama earlier called for a recommitment to peace during a solemn pilgrimage to a World War I site, Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial in northwest Belgium.
“This visit, this hallowed ground, reminds us that we must never ever take our progress for granted,” Obama said.
“We must commit perennially to peace, which binds us across oceans.”
Followed by the stirring sound of a bugler playing Taps, Obama joined Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and King Phillipe in laying a trio of wreaths at the white stone monument at the centre of the cemetery, the site of a significant World War I battle. The three leaders then walked among some of the white crosses that mark the burial site of 368 American troops, most of whom gave their lives in liberating Belgium from German occupation.
The Belgian leaders did not mention Russian President Vladimir Putin by name in remarks afterward, but clearly were referencing his audacious annexation of Crimea as they recalled the lessons of world war. “Our countries have learned the hard way that national sovereignty quickly reaches its limits” when confronted with armed adversaries, who don’t respect that sovereignty, said King Phillipe.
“We have to continue to draw lessons from the terrible war that started 100 years ago,” Di Rupo said. “And, above all, we have to prevent new conflicts. Those who ignore the past are taking the risk to relive it.”
Obama planned to conclude his day with his only speech of the weeklong, four-country trip, tying the current Ukraine crisis to his vision of the United States and Europe as anchors of democracy and international law.
Obama also used the cemetery visit to criticize Syria’s chemical weapons use, noting that gases were also used during battles in the wider area. “The lessons of that war speak to us still,” Obama said.
The president quoted the closing line from “In Flanders Fields,” a poem by Canadian soldier John McRae.
“To you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields,” Obama read.
Obama responded, “To all who sleep here, we can say we caught the torch, we kept the faith.”
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