I'm having a hard time believing, however, that the world media is letting him get away with "the sheer improbability" characterization of the Normandy beachhead victory.
If the odds against success were that heavy, someone in the chain of command would have ordered or loudly and publicly counselled the abort. Someone like Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, Smith, Montgomery, Ramsay, Leigh-Mallory, Devers -- y'know, all those old white guys who had to run a war without benefit of several years experience organizing neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago.
Whatever their faults, generals and admirals do not launch attacks on the world stage where defeat is a sheer probability. All who have written of Overlord from a military standpoint concede it was very risky (duuhhh) and casualties would be heavy. But all considered victory on the beaches and beyond quite likely. Mr. President, may I politely challenge you to cite any source with more credibility than, say, Bill Ayers, to the effect that the Allied Powers believed they faced sheerly improbable chances of success?
I make an issue of this, Sir, because many people tend to believe what a president says, no matter how dense the fecal content. These things also get printed in the books, and I share with some other eccentrics a quirky little interest in keeping our history as tidily accurate as possible.
