Memorial Day, 2008: HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In
Bob Geiger: Dead Troops Remembered By President Who Had Them Killed:
Yes, that's a harsh headline for this piece.But I'll ask you to forgive me because, as a Veteran, there isn't a day on the calendar that causes my hatred -- and I do indeed mean hatred -- of George W. Bush to bubble over the top more than Memorial Day.
Dante Zappala: Our Sacrifice:
My National Guardsman brother would be alive were it not for the war in Iraq. I must repeat that to myself with a quiet firmness. For many, Memorial Day represents the promise of burgeoning possibilities, a chance for a BBQ, afternoon beers and family gatherings. We, however, are consumed with flags, tears and the names of our dead.
For my family, Memorial Day bookends a season of anniversaries. For the fourth time now, we have repeated this litany. The last time I saw Sherwood was in February. The last time we talked was in March. His last e-mail came days before his death in April. His funeral was in May. And now we have this weekend to remember him amongst all of the fallen.
April Somdahl: Mourning My Brother and an Unjust War:
Brian was one of more than a hundred active duty soldiers to commit suicide last year. The Veterans Administration now admits that 1,000 veterans are attempting suicide every month. The Army is trying to blame these deaths on personal problems and failed relationships. Earlier this year, their top suicide expert, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, even put some of the blame on military families, telling a reporter that "Families are getting tired. Therefore, sometimes they're more irritable, sometimes they don't take care of each other the way they should, are not as nurturing as they should be."
Frank Schaeffer: A Memorial Day Speech Obama Should Give:
I never served but my Marine son did when he was deployed to President Bush's wars. I disagree with the President about invading Iraq, but I'm proud of my son's service. He didn't volunteer to serve an administration but our country.
I live on the Volvo-driving, higher-education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I'm a novelist, not your usual "military parent" these days. I've learned a little about working class America -- especially the white Americans who live in places like West Virginia and Kentucky who provide an outsized contribution of men and women to our military.
Kerry Trueman: Sacrificial Limbs:
This Memorial Day, most Americans are too busy struggling to feed their families, fuel their cars, and cling to the roof over their heads to spend much time thinking about the sacrifices our soldiers are making on our behalf.
Greg Mitchell:At Memorial Day: Another Iraq Vet, With PTSD, Suicide:
On Memorial Day weekend, yet another American family is mourning the death of son who survived the war in Iraq -- only to fall victim at home from post traumatic shock disorder.The family lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Marine was Chad Oligschlaeger, age 21, who committed suicide this week at the Twenty Nine Palms base in California.
Paul Helmke: Memorial Day: Remembering All Who Protect And Serve:
This Memorial Day weekend, as we remember our men and women in uniform serving around the world in our armed services, I encourage you also to remember those who serve in our local law enforcement agencies.They put their lives on the line every day, and every day they have to deal with a criminal element armed with weapons of ever-greater firepower.
Martha Burk: Advertising For Trouble:
Most Americans acknowledge the service of our troops on Memorial Day, whether we agree with our country's involvement in the war or not. But the U.S. Marine Corps is taking advantage of the moment in a new way.
Long a bastion of macho military mystique, they're now actively recruiting women. Ads are running in such magazines as Shape, Self, and Fitness, which mainly appeal to women readers. They show a woman marine striking a martial arts pose in front of a crowd of men, who are supposedly looking up to her as a leader. The tag line reads "There are no female marines. Only marines." In a shrinking economy, these ads may appeal to a lot of women who need jobs. But like most advertising, they don't tell the whole story.
Susan Deal Booth: Thinking About Memorial Day And My Father:
The men and women of the armed services earn our respect. They act on what we as a democracy decide. Most of us just see glimpses of their heroism in history books, movies or the daily news. If we are very lucky, we know someone who has served or who is serving in the military. Lucky, because these men and women sometimes reveal the personal nature of their commitment. What they tell us can be electrifying, shocking, sad, awe-inspiring, but it is always humbling. It makes our debt to them very real.
I am especially lucky because I grew-up with a man who is a veteran. My father-Harry William Deal-fought in World War II and then thankfully, came home to raise our family.
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Ol' George sure uses that "awesome" word a lot, don't he?
"Totally."
McCain...you there?...you think we didn't notice your opposition to the GI bill on the grounds that it was too expensive?
You think we didn't notice the Congressional Budget Office's prediction that shows Webb's bill would have no net loss (16% increase in attrition, 16% new enrollment) due to an increase in benefits ?
You think that those of us with family members serving in the military agree to waiting 12 years before being eligible to maximum benefits under your and Graham's bill?
You think that we don't know about transferability of benefits under Webb's bill?
You think we didn't notice that you had no bill to offer until days before Memorial Day?
You think increasing Americans' competitive edge by equipping them with an education isn't a good investment economic investment?
Oh, that's right, the economy isn't your thing (your words)--except when it comes to catching a piece of for yourself from the failed savings and loan institutions.
And lastly, you don't really think we have confidence in you handling the war, do you?
Good post; excellent points!!
very good karen
both of you
heh...
Around 1920 an American, Moina Michael, was the 1st recorded incidence of a person wearing a poppy in remembrance of lives lost in WWI. Madame E. Guerin on a visit from France heard of the idea and upon returning home began to make homemade poppies and sold them to help support the children of war. This idea quickly spread around the world. The poppies are sold in many countries with proceeds benefiting many different veteran organizations.
So the next time you see someone with poppies for a donation......dig down deep and give with pride. Know you are saying thanks and helping a worthy cause.......by supporting our vets and vets around the world.
http://www.cyclequest.com/Vets/Flanders%20Poppy.htm
Bush is responssible for this war, but congress too. We only had 23 brave senators to vote against this war, Hillary is responsible for this war too, I seen pictures of dead american soldiers and poor inoncent kids death. Hillary should never be allowed to enter the white house no even as a visitor. I am tired of politicians making bad judgement on votes and important issues, but at the same time getting away with it.
NYC
Our Congress never voted for this war. Look at the bill.
Nor have they voted against it. Look at Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.
LINK?
The snow had buried Stuyvesant.
The subways drummed the vaults. I heard
The El's green girders charge on Third,
Manhattan's truss of adamant
That groaned in ermine, slummed on want
Cyclonic zero of the word.
God of our armies, who interred
Cold Harbor's blue immortals, Grant!
Horseman, your sword is in the groove.
Ice, ice. Our wheels no longer move.
Look, the fixed stars all just alike
As lackland atoms fly apart.
And the Republic summons Ike,
The mausoleum in her heart.
--Robert Lowell
On this solemn day, how can we forget that our Commander-in Thief made the ultimate sacrifice for this war-HE GAVE UP GOLF!!!!
As a Veteran For Peace, I was made aware that my presence at the parade would be somehow bad for the war biz, so I spent the holiday re-acquainting myself with the Leaflets of the White Rose Society.
"Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be "governed" by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct."
--The White Rose Society (from the First Leaflet)
"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage-----torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians-----which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. ...The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." : George Orwell
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"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little" : Franklin Delano Roosevelt
War is hell. We honor our fighters today. And we dream of PEACE.
While war is what humanity does on a regular basis, an unjust war built upon lies to benefit a few rich cynical Wendigos is a goddamn SIN. Long periods of peace within the western world are so rare that we name them. This Pax Americana that we live in today grew out of the devastation of the Second World War that we are reminded was just 60 years ago.
Such a short time -only 60 years of peace and already named- yet most of us today accept that this rare peace is the norm and that war is some aberration of human nature. Today is a good day to recognize the foolishness of this view. We are violent beasts in need of healing from this curse.
Facing a future of Energy Scarcity and Climate Change, it is guaranteed that this century will be a violent one. What promises can we make today that could mitigate that horror? What sacrifices are we willing o make so that peace may flourish?
Perhaps as we ponder today upon this foolish and sinful Iraq invasion and occupation, we will promise not to be so quick to violence; to turn the other cheek even as out prophets advise; and resolve to choose for our government people more deposed to peace than than they are to dreams of Empire or war-profiteering.
Today I remember my childhood friend Mike Jablonsky. You can go to pownetwork.org and find his name and all the details of his loss. He died while crossing a river Kien Hoa Privince in the Delta region at 16:50 hours on June 27 1969.
We grew up together, went to school and played together. We worked at the corner drug store together while going to Lane Tech High School.
In 1966 we talked about joining the Navy toghter. I did and he didnt. I wasnt able to convince him to join. I WISH I WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CONVINCING !!!
I went on to a career in the Navy, serving in the Tonkin Gulf in 1969. He was drafted and served in country (Viet Nam) in 1969 while I was off the coast of central Viet Nam serving as air sea rescue.. During the fall of 1969 while I was training for the recovery of Apollo 12, I received a letter from Mike's brother that he had been lost on patrol.
That winter I visited his parents (my second parents) in Chicago. That was a tough visit.
Many yaers later, I visited the Viet Nam memorial in DC and made a rubbing of his name. With my wife and two children, some how that was an ever tougher visit.
God bless all our service men and women. Today I remember my friend Mike Jablonski.
The United States is almost 232 years old, the world’s greatest and oldest experiment in freedom and democracy.
In that short history, Americans have paid for that freedom — and increasingly over the past century, for the freedom of untold others — in the blood and noble sacrifice of those who heard the call to service and gave their lives to the cause.
Some 4,435 died for their new country in the American Revolution.
2,260 in the War of 1812.
13,283 in the Mexican War.
529,511 — probably more, but records are incomplete — in the American Civil War.
2,446 in the Spanish-American War.
116,516 in World War I.
405,399 in World War II.
36,574 in the Korean War.
58,209 in the Vietnam War.
19 in Grenada for Operation Urgent Fury.
383 in the Persian Gulf War.
23 in Panama for Operation Just Cause.
43 in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.
496 in Operation Enduring Freedom and 4,069 in Operation Iraqi Freedom — and counting.
That’s 1,173,666 in all.
Lets all make sure we don't elect a commander in chief that sends our military into wars to kill and be killed in unnecessary wars. That seems like a reasonable request, I'm sure past, present, and future soldiers would appreciate that.
Arrest the Criminal Bush NOW!
OUR HEART GOES OUT FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM!!!
As the Clintons focus on blaming others--now the Democratic Party itself--for the failure of their campaign, I refer bloggers to Roger Cohen's OP-ED in the New York Times of today (May 26, 2008) titled "The Obama Connection." Cohen points to the basic politics of the Clintons as one of "'Me, me, me.' That tends to be blinding. Her most crippling blindness has been the networks, national, global, the threads that bind and have changed society." I add this comment: IT IS ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT; never the Clintons! That is the story of their life—AND, ON THAT SCORE, THEY HAVE ALWAYS USED OTHERS TO ATTAIN THEIR END. During the Clinton years in the White House, it was the "vast right wing conspiracy"--never the reckless conduct of the Clintons. Democrats rallied to defend them out of a sense of solidarity. Now, it is a conspiracy within the Democratic Party itself--never mind that Hillary Clinton ran a very poor campaign, played all the conceivable negative cards (race, gender, media, whining, working class, religion, victim, and on and on). After all these years, the Clintons, as serial users, are yet to learn the true meaning and virtue of personal responsibility. But then again, they in no way can symbolize an aristocracy of virtue. They have always played by the primordial rules of selfish individuality.
We can't keep tossing our men and women into ideological conflicts and pretend that they are there to save the world when in our hearts we know they are only there to score an ideological point for "our side." These men and women are our most unique resources and when we commit them to this end we must be sure that they represent our one and only chance to deal with the situation. After all they are not merely pawns but our sons, daughters, husbands, wives and friends.
We should commit to ourselves that we will treat them with the respect they deserve and never to ever sacrifice them only because they chose to serve.
"We can't keep tossing our men and women into ideological conflicts and pretend that they are there to save the world when in our hearts we know they are only there to score an ideological point for "our side."...
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We didn't.
We did it for MONEY.
Those wounds don't heal.
Don't forget about the OIL!!!
"honor the dead, heal the wounded, end the war." peace
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