Cheney Should Remember -- Really Remember -- Our Fallen Troops

If today were any day other than Memorial Day, I wouldn't make it to the end of this sentence without flinging some heartfelt insult at Dick Cheney.

But this day isn't about Dick Cheney, and it sure as hell isn't about my pampered civilian ass. This day is about Americans who died in uniform. This day, by extension, is about the barely noticed cataclysm our country endures every time a combat death cheats an American out of a dad, a mom, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, an uncle, an aunt, a cousin, a neighbor, a friend. This day is about loss.

Cheney displayed a basic ingratitude toward that loss in last week's speech at the American Enterprise Institute. The ingratitude is not unique to Cheney. It's a type of ingratitude that's comfortable for many, if not most, of us. It's an accounting trick we do. Something worthy of the crooks at Enron. We take the deaths of soldiers and move them off our balance sheets.

It's only by cooking the books in this way that Cheney could tell his AEI audience about the Bush Administration "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11." That, after all, is a statement that only makes sense if we accept a definition of "our people" that excludes members of the American military.

I'd like to believe that we would stop accepting that twisted definition of "our people" if the number of American military deaths in the "war on terror" ever surpassed the number of Americans who died on 9/11. I'd like to believe that. But I know it's not true. The military toll surpassed the 9/11 toll way back in 2006. Yet nearly three full years after that tragic milestone and the thousands of deaths it encompasses, Cheney is able to tell us about the "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11." And we're able to listen, saving our skepticism and outrage for Cheney's more newsworthy claims about waterboarding. We're able to tacitly accept the idea that the military dead don't count as "our people."

But how much is too much? When would the grim arithmetic of all these combat deaths force us to think differently? Would we still accept talk of "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11" if 100,000 American soldiers died to spare 100 American civilians from a terrorist attack? How about if 1 million soldiers died to spare 10 civilians?

To be fair, our country does set aside today -- this one day out of every year -- to mark the sacrifices made by our military.

To be fair, Cheney made these two statements at AEI:

* "As in all warfare, there have been costs - none higher than the sacrifices of those killed and wounded in our country's service."

* "It's required the commitment of many thousands of troops in two theaters of war, with high points and some low points in both Iraq and Afghanistan - and at every turn, the people of our military carried the heaviest burden."

But scroll through the names below, the Americans killed in Iraq alone. Read their names and ask yourself if Cheney's two sentences, if our Memorial Day sales, if our cookouts, if our three-day weekends show sufficient respect to our war dead and to the families who have lost loved ones forever. Read their names and ask if we can really congratulate ourselves for "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11."

Comments

[ignorantwillyharper]

There is nothing that could be done to Cheney, Bush that would satisfy the killing of just one of our boys, or girls in this criminal lied war to make themselves and their big money friends richer, nothing that would justify their criminal action to this nation.
you name it and it would not be horrible enough for the lot of all of them.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

And after he says five Haily Mary's and three Our Father's, everything will be just fine. Like hell it will.

[Conk]

Remember? Dear God, this man has no heart. He couldn't care less about anyone but himself.

[FebM]

To Cheney they are collateral damage from his obsessive wars inspired by paranoia, never mind his talk about Obama letting "some" terrorist run around with WMD/nuclear weapons in America.

[LOLocrat]

I keep thinking about the troops who will (I pray) someday soon return to America ...
Some of these troops will have served multiple tours of duty and spent years enduring horrors I can't even imagine. All so Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield et al could make money.
Soon, many of these brave young people will come back to us tormented by the events they've witnessed, and their reward for serving their country and bearing these scars?
Shockingly bad mental health care ... at best: fistfuls of anti-depressants thrown at them with little if any monitoring of drug compliance or side effects ... at worst: purposeful misdiagnosis so they can't collect benefits.
The number of "fatal shooting" stories will surely increase exponentially thanks to the unknown number of "time bombs" returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.
And NO slur on any service personnel intended here! Rather, it's the military bureaucracy which washes its hands of these broken people who are to blame.

[dawn9476]

Cheney remember our soldiers? Like the ones he sent into a war that was called because of so called evidence that he fabricated and led to the death of 4200 of our soldiers in uniform? Hahaha. That's funny.

[voltage356]

Oh please, as a former vet, C heney couldn't give a rats behind about the honorable men and women who have lost their lives for Cheney's greed. One word would really sum it up Halliburton.

[Waltfl]

Despite all the talk about "honor, dignity, and patriotism", from the Bush-Cheney gang lately, both, 5 time draft evader Cheney, and service-ditcher G.W.Bush didn't care about our troops during their 8-year misrule. Here is a small piece of their record:

-cut $1.5 billion from military family housing
-underfunded veterans' health care by $2 billion
-cut budgets and forced more than 200,000 veterans to wait for health care.
-opposed plan to give National Guard and Reserve Members access to health insurance.
-cut $172 million allotted for educating the children of military personnel.

Why should they suddenly care about our fallen soldiers?

[k4freedom]

And who was in control of both houses of congress?? The president can only recommend legislation, congress must enact it and fund it....check with your house and senate leaders.

[StellaRay]

Brilliant question Waltfl. Why care now? And from the point of our troops, why get excited about a wreath and a speech.

The GOP is long on compliments for the military and short on empathy. It is under Bush/Cheney that your list of military betrayals occurred. And while they cut benefits for our soldiers right and left, they expanded tours of duty to heretofore unknown excesses. Too many wars, too few soldiers.

These guys would lose at RIsk. Come to think of it, they did. We did.

[Waltfl]

The Republicans were in control, from January 1996 to January 2007.

[k4freedom]

Our country was founded on Christian principles...like it or not
We are a nation of immigrants, or decendants of, some sooner, some later
We do not speak Russian, Chinese, Swahili, Portugese, German, or French
If you want to live here....learn to speak English
Don't ever forget the men and women who died that we might enjoy the freedoms we do...
One of those freedoms being...if you don't like it here...you are free to move to another country
We are a peculiar nation...We enjoy what is called the American way of life...something that has evolved here over the course of our short history....it is also what OUR brave service men and women have fought and died for.
"In God we trust" is printed on our currency, and engraved in stone in the halls of congress...
I'll put my trust in HIM, and HIM alone....God bless America

[Craftyone]

How tolerant of you.

[k4freedom]

You are most welcome

[dems08]

"our country was founded on Christian principles"

That is not true. It was founded on democratic principles.

[k4freedom]

Read ALL of our history, not just what coincides with your point of view...take a walk in the Capitol Building, note the inscriptions etched in stone throughout...then take a litte jaunt over to the Supreme court and note the same.

[Mercedes]

k4freedom:

I gather you are a card carrying member of the Neo-Con party and a sponsor of the PNAC agenda...

GOD doesn't have to bless America when He sees Hypocrites and 'false christians' like Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, etc... start an Unnecessary Invasion of a country that had Nothing to do with 9/11 and all our beloved US soldiers and Innocent Iraqis that have been killed or injured because of it..

He chooses who He wants to bless, He speaks any language, NOT just English. He is our Maker and we should remember that He is in charge of this world, not mortal men--even though He's given man 'Free Will. Look at the mess that's got us in!

[k4freedom]

I was wondering how long it would take to be 'labeled', it is comforting to know I an in the company of those who know not only the minds of mortals, but God himself. You are so right, we are in a mess.

[tippydog11]

blood on his hands cheney--his puppet bush he deceived..more Americans died by terrorist then any sitting Pres VP in History...he was warned 7 months 2 days..

torture cost more American lives once the revelations came out from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib tortured.. Alexander Mathew soldier who was an Interrogator in Iraq... torture became Al qaida's number one recruiting tool. Alex. mathew said anyone who served in Iraq and veterans on both sides of the aisle know terrorist came to Iraq in masses once the revelation of torture was out...Who has kept us safer?

[earlyearlyearly]

"He can spin it as hard as he can. He will never wash the blood off his hands."
-Billy Stone

[earlyearlyearly]

"He can spin it as hard as he can, he will never wash the the off his hands"
- Billy Stone

[katielady]

Cheney obtained FIVE DEFERRALS: FIVE ! ! ! ! As a huge stockholder in Haliburton, he had everything to gain by declaring war. As he was not elected he used his tool, W. There you have it... He is wealthy beyond anyone's imagination and a COWARD to boot...

I had many uncles and cousins who fought in WW2; heroes, everyone. I worked as a nurse in a VA hospital when the men from Viet Nam began coming home; they too were heroes! I was honored to be able to help care for them...

Cheney is a COWARD ...

[k4freedom]

Using your analogy...uh , I guess that would make Clinton one, also

[offred]

Cheney has no basis to talk about keeping America safe. He and Bush DID NOT keep Americans safe for 8 years, in particular the military dead, who, as Quigg says, "don't count as 'our people'."

How about the biggest loss of all: almost 5,000 American service members killed and tens of thousands injured and disabled because of Bush's vanity war, which Cheney lied, bribed, and just plain hallucinated to justify? How about the military people killed by KBR's faulty wiring and the incipient cases of cancer because of the open fire pits the contractors used to dispose of toxic waste? How about the cases of intractable intestinal disease suffered by some soldiers and vets because some crony/contractor transported dead bodies in a truck one day, then the next day transported ice for use in food and drinks? (Disinfecting a truck and paying someone to disinfect it costs too much money, apparently.)

And don't forget the thousands and thousands of fundamentalist Muslim militants the Iraq war and Bush's cowboy politics brought about.

Safe, I don't think so.

[k4freedom]

So...tell us...what were your thoughts when the four jets piloted by Muslim terrorists struck on 911 killing thousands of your friends and neighbors?? Did you want to send cards of condolance to the families of the pilots?? Were we Americans to blame possibly? It is easy to quarterback the game on Monday morning...Bush and Cheney are histoi...Obama has the ball now.

[offred]

The four jets were piloted by Saudis. No Iraqis in the bunch.

[Moonlighter]

No one knows what war is like unless they have been in one. Dick Cheney is a rank amateur in matters of state security and intelligence, and he is seen through easily enough. The unfortunate bit we are all living with is that he was able to navigate his way into a powerful position in our government.

Whoever the people are across the country who get together to assemble care packages for the soldiers, Thank You! That does go beyond applying yellow ribbon stickers to vehicles.

It may just be me but I can't stand it when people say "Thank you for your service" in that reflexive way as if they were trained to say it in their management meetings and sales seminars. Typically I respond by saying "You don't have to thank me. I volunteered and I got my combat pay." It's probably just that people don't know what to say. There is no proper thing to say.

The best parade this country can ever give its veterans, soldiers, and civilians is a parade of sober, serious, wise leaders with education, intellect, and mettle, who can guide the ship of state peacefully through the waters.

Additionally, citizens can begin looking in their own districts, counties, and states and delineating how the military-industrial complex impacts their communities. That is the machine we need to dismantle.

[Guberman]

regarding dismantling the machine: indeed.

[FatherKindly]

Beautifully said. Good for you.

[k4freedom]

Rank amateur...­hardly...C­heney was the United States Secretary of Defense from 1999-20003 and oversaw the first Gulf War. Whatever it was last week that Cheney said, it surely did strike a nerve...the truth can be ruthless, at times. Ah, it would be a great thing to be able to steer the Good ship Peace through calm waters...but just ask Captain Phillips of the Mearsk Alabama...sometimes that peace is interrupted by pirates...and must be taken out...that is when the 'military-­industrial complex kicks in.

[Mercedes]

I think you meant that Cheney was the US Secretary of Defense during the term of Bush's Daddy--George H.W. Bush.

I don't think Clinton would have wanted Cheney anywhere NEAR the White House during his term from Jan. 1993 to Jan. 2001! Besides, I think Cheney was part of Halliburton after Bush's daddy until W. Bush came in Jan. 2001.

[k4freedom]

Wouldn't it BE a wonderful world if the good ship lolipop COULD just sail peacefully through the waters?...you will have wait for the second coming of Christ to experience that...meanwhile a real world exists with real dangers that require military responses...unless you are comfortable with the idea of just rolling over and giving America away piece by piece..