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.

Comments

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

"Do you remember that hour of din before the attack -
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads-those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

Have you forgotten yet?
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget."

Extract from Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon

[crl9]

As the daughter, sister, and widow of deceased disabled veterans I can forgive my country nearly anything except its' callow disregard for those willing to lay down life and limb for our collective ideal of the United States. In January the President will be able to leave office with lifetime security and insulation from the damage he has wrought.

He will never wonder why he is hated and reviled and yet one needs look no further than substandard care in rat invested veteran hospitals to understand. For those who say they are not all or even most like that, I say even one is too many. For one hospital bedside visit by a bill collector hectoring a recruit whose body did not out live their signing bonus, once was enough.

For those who wonder how Saddam could gas the Kurds, his own people - at least by our standards - his own people, one needs look no further than the closest veterans hospital or more likely, the local homeless shelter.

Treating veterans like garbage is not new, just one more area where the President and his administration have reached a new low. We have no collective will to bring this monster to task and as long as we haven't the will to bring him to justice, he reflects our weakness of character. Make no mistake, he preyed upon us but ultimately, we allowed it and it is our disgrace.

[coyote4]

An administration that values spilled blood, empire and wealth but hates people.

[FirstForty]

Memorial Day is one of our most important and least understood holidays. Most times I hear it expressed as thanking the soldiers but it is really all about those who have fallen and given thier lives in American wars.

Ive walked the beach and Normandy and the greens of Bastogne. Both broght tears to my eyes. I cant imagine the world these people lived in nor the pain they felt as they fell. Our generation can never understand their sacrifice.

The last think we should do is forget their sacrifice and the last thing we should allow to be done is that their valor be used as a polical lever.

[KYJurisDoctor]

I SALUTE ALL our Veterans and those who are still serving the cause of FREEDOM!

[BlueStateMan]

How about those who aren't?

[GoodwithWood]

I serve the cause of Freedom by participating in peace rallies.

[Apollonavigator]

Your thoughts were good I'm sure. But please don't compare youre service to miitary combat. I stil cry for my lost friends in Viet Nam. You will never undrstand or have that same feeling.

[dgscol]

The American soldier comes to believe in the concepts that made America great, because he cannot believe his life would be forfeit for nothing.

Yet, it is these men, with this faith, that keep the idea alive. The people that send them may not care about their lives, and people might tear them down simply for having defended liberty. These people might be totally unwanted, and yet they believe they have fought for the good, for the maintaining of our way of life.

[ManyColored]

I distinctly remember when I was a kid planting an American Flag on the front lawn as the veterans marched by. I also remember the Memorial Day service they used to hold adjacent to a cemetery. Someone always recited "In Flanders Field, the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row..." The cemetery had more than half the graves (even then, so much later) with civil war casualties buried under them. All my uncles (4) served in World War II. One was a Japanese prisoner of war since after Bataan. My camp counselors were all called up for the Korean War in its early stages because they were in the reserves. I'm sure they all died immediately because they didn't even know how to make a pack up. I was in the Marines, but nothing was going on at the time, so I never got shot at. My college friends after I went back died in Vietnam. And now this useless, immoral war foisted on us by the worst president in United States history, and the one who will have done the most damage to this country in its existence far into the future. And McCain wants to continue this debacle. And Hillary voted for it and supported it. Enough said.

[Podewumun]

Like you, ManyColored, I've many family members and friends who have served. Five of my great uncles served in WWII. One spent two years in a German POW camp. Another survived the Bataan Death March. My father served on Eisenhower's staff in England during the Korean War. At least twenty members of my graduating high school class went to Viet Nam. Three of them died there.

For me, this is more than a day to honor those who have sacrificed in the name of America. It is also a day given to questions of why humans continue to wage senseless wars when we are capable of so much more. Peace.

[Lycaos]

Where was Hillary's apology for authorizing the war that is killing so many Americans?

[McSameisthegame]

She's too busy dancing her last dance in Puerto Rico-- a pachanga,I think!!! Then it's back to a cold-shouldered reception in the Senate!!!

[GoodwithWood]

so many humans

[maxdenn]

Can someone please advise me as to what it is we are fighting for in Iraq.

[crl9]

Oil company profits

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

War profiteering.

It's not about terrorists.

It's not about WMDs.

It's not about Saddam Hussein.

It's not about a stable Iraq.

It's not about Al Qaeda.

It's not about helping the Iraqis.

It's not about creating Democracy in the Middle East.

It's always been about war profiteering.

[BlueStateMan]

Oil.

[coyote4]

Foolish neocon dreams of grandeur.

[bobsmith]

Paul Helmke said: "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..."

-------------

The "criminal element" to which Mr. Helmke refers is largely made up of poor minority males imprisoned on drug charges. Such people fill our corporate-owned prisons where they are increasingly used to perform cheap slave labor for the corps. And the burgeoning number of ridiculous laws threaten to encompass ALL of us in this tangled web of greed.

Our militarized law enforcement agencies form the backbone of the police state the plutocracy is creating for us. Without the police, they couldn't pull it off. Local law enforcement agencies are increasingly out of control, corrupt, abusive, and sadistic. They are murdering innocents every day with tasers. Their personnel include far too many dull, hostile, angry, sadistic, alpha-males who would rather kill you, or jail you, than help you. They tend to be angry, arrogant, jerks who view the general public with complete contempt, and it is far past time for the public to remove the rose-colored glasses and see them for the grave threat they pose.

So I think I'll pass on "remembering those who serve in our local law enforcement agencies" on this Memorial day.

[BlueStateMan]

You'd rather not have police?

[chinacatsunflower]

not the ones as described above, that's for sure. and there are far too many like that out there. the hardest thing i had to tell my 5 year old was that a policeman, her "friend", shot my unarmed, non-threatening sister on a "routine" traffic stop. this was a rogue cop that had a history of brutality, who knows how many "missing" women he actually killed and left for dead. fortunately for all of us, she survived. yeah, they're everywhere.

[maxdenn]

I support the troops. Bring them home.

[Podewumun]

Hear! Hear!

[goldenshaman]

Other than bringing the troops home, the only way to bring this war to a just end is to have a complete set of war crimes trials.

These would include every talking head who supported the war and every Congressman who voted to fund it.

[BlueStateMan]

That would entail 99% of our government.... & do you REALLY want to try people for their IDEAS?

[Orlando]

The idea needs to be introduced into the public mind that those who answered the call to duty from this country will not be held accountable for the crimes of invasion and occupation.
HOWEVER, the people who called this nation to war on LIES will be held accountable to the highest level.
When asked to rally against an immediate threat, this country did so without questioning the orders.
Now that we have find out that we were lied to, upon the orders of the oil companies in plans that were drawn up in secret energy policy meetings, there must be full accountability.

If I scream fire in a crowded theater, I would be held accountable for those that were injured in the resulting rushed exit.

If this is true, how can our politicians threaten the safety of the nation with threats of mushroom clouds and engage in a war of aggression with no consequence??

While letting the co-conspirators off of the hook is distasteful to me, it is the only way that we would ever obtain the political will to have war crime or treason trials for this administration.

[hyderows]

For a Party which treats their emotions with such reverence as though they're the only ones who have them, it's revealing to watch them fake patriotism to the extent that they have to redefine it and exploit the families of the fallen.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

I want to thank everyone who's served in the military and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Condolences to their friends and families. Nobody else should have to die in this war for profit.

The Bush administration and the DOD have been hiding the real death toll from Americans and when Senator Obama becomes President we are all going to be shocked and angry at the real number of dead and wounded American soldiers.

"We have received copies of manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially. The DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate over 12,000 dead, nearly 50,000 seriously wounded and a large number of suicides, forced hospitalization for ongoing drug usage and sales, murder of Iraqi civilians and fellow soldiers, rapes, courts martial and so on..."
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1669.htm
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2635.htm#002
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2540.htm#001
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-lampley/the-ultimate-deception_b_2838.html

Additionally, it is thought more than 5,000 have deserted in Ireland, Canada and Europe.

[JohnKemp]

Hey, kind of interesting that in the late PM the HuffPo finally realizes that it's Memorial Day.

Lots of good news recently from Iraq; it's a shame that the HuffPo has missed it.

[maxdenn]

4,000 dead U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's killed as a result of the foibles of George W. Bush is good news?

[Lycaos]

Good news in Iraq? You mean Americans have stopped dying there? Until that happens, there can be no "good news" from Iraq.

[Bagger]

I wish therer were good news. We've stopped paying attention. Everyone thinks they know what's happening in Iraq when in reality you have no clue. Infrastructure is crumbling and civil war is imminent. Every country has a civil war including ours. It's only a matter of time before Iraq has theirs.

[crl9]

Americans and Iraqis have stopped dying? KBR has stopped raping and killing people? At least KBR is democratic with a small 'd' in that they rape, murder, and torture without regard to nationality. How does this qualify as good news?

[coyote4]

Drinking water is flowing?
Electrical service is 24 hours?
Oil output has doubled?
Iraqis are fattening up on their oil dividend checks?
The streets and markets are safe and free?
Sectarian violence has ended?
It's now okay for a Shiite to sell an American humus?

WHAT ???

Where is the good news?

[peacekitten]

For the dead from this war, requiscat in pace. especially for those who survived their battles fought with bullets and bombs only to lose the wars they had yet to fight against something that had come to live within them, without them even knowing until it was too late.

For the living left behind, all mercy and peace to their troubled souls and broken hearts. their suffering has only just begun in a war they will fight against despair and sadness for all their lives. hopefully, they will come to understand and find some small consolation in the fact that their loved ones will live always in their hearts.

as for those who began this travesty against humanity, may they never find peace in this world or the next. i'm sure that if there wasn't a hell before, there is one now, and it was made just for them. i hope its flames will torment them for eternity.

[HumeSkeptic]

Were God so just as to create a hell for "those who began this travesty against humanity", he would never have let them do it. We must work to demand accountability from criminals, and we must find ways to make them pay for their crimes.

As usual, a beautiful post, PK. Thank you.

[peacekitten]

thank you, my friend.

i am right there with you about the accountability. all that needs to be done is to enforce existing laws and see that justice is served. i hope the new obama presidency will bring with it the strength to do what is right even when it's hard, especially when it's hard. it's the only way we will get our country back. i just wish we could get back all the lives wasted in this abomination known as the war in iraq.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

Harsh but appropriate words madam president.
.

[JohnKemp]

Hey, you left out your empathy for the 3,000 who were murdered on 9-11-2001.

Don't you wish to add another verse?

[peacekitten]

no. what i said goes for both sides, hence the phrase "for the dead from this war." contrary to what you may think, the iraqis are human beings too.

i should think that the blood of approximately 12,000 (the REAL numbers) dead american soldiers, tens of thousands wounded, nearly a million dead iraqis, including women and children, and the bewildered, suffering souls that are intertwined with each of those lost and maimed lives should be quite enough bloodshed for revenge on a country that never harmed us, don't you?

when will people like you EVER learn that true strength lies in peace? that peace is our ONLY hope for mutually assured survival instead of the old, cro-magnon doctrine of mutually assured destruction? i could almost pity you for the anger you must have so ingrained in you that you see nothing wrong with the whole concept of war. it is the greatest failure of humanity.