President Obama is on his way to Normandy’s beaches. Writing about the meaning of D-Day in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Herbert London wisely notes that,

The world offers challenges each year since freedom is tested in each generation by new pharaohs. We need the guardians of liberty to remind us how precarious that freedom is. We need to rise to the occasion the way young American soldiers did on June 6, 1944. They are a constant reminder that liberty requires vigilance and courage if it is to survive.

President Obama’s speech in Cairo – the seat of Pharaohs of old and not so old – falls well short of that moral clarity, much like previous speeches he’s delivered. Let’s just hope tomorrow at Omaha beach he remembers what his chief job is – to lead the free world against tyrants, not lecture it in front of an audience of tyrants.