Pathos

We are informed by the 'Times' that Barak Obama is to visit Buchenwald, which has special significance for him because, according to Obama, his great uncle helped liberate it.(1) The pathos smacks of piffle and all the more so when we consider the fact that as late as a year ago the "hype" man was poclaiming that he “had an uncle who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps."(2) Of course, that story had to be revised since everyone knows that it was the Russians who liberated Auschwitz. Now it is Buchenwald and, while the "hype" man might have had an uncle who "helped" to liberate the camp, the fact that Obama was still confusing Buchenwald with Auschwitz as recently as a year ago, is indicative of what it it really meant or means for him. Of course, for our "hype" man, our "iMac politician", the media's darling, it is all about politics and publicity. No doubt, we might even get a tear or two, which will be a tear or two more than he shed for the 120 Afghanistani men, women and children who were recently murdered by an Army, of which he is Commander in Chief.
1 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6245200.ece
2 ibid