Yesterday was Memorial Day, and I for one spent my time walking in the Falls Church Memorial Day Parade next to Leslie Byrne, being driven in a convertible. As she waved to the crowd I had a packet of brochures in one hand and a basket of candy in the other, and I distributed campaign literature and sweets to all who wanted them. Guess which was more popular.
But they event made me think. Memorial Day is supposed to be a time to gather together and remember those who gave their lives to protect us from those who wished to do us harm. But do we really understand how those servicemen really lived and died? Did we and the military give them so much consideration when they were alive? And did we give their deaths the honor of truth that every person deserves? Even if you subscribe to the idea that war is necessary sometimes, the sheer disregard for US servicemen and women displayed by our own government and their own commanding officers (I mean the ones on top, not the ones in the field) is something unbelievable.
At the start of 2005, at least a quarter of US deaths in Iraq were in non-combat situations. This is fairly typical for an occupying army. Yet what is the family of those servicemen told? That the fallen was 'fighting for freedom' is popular, as is 'defending America'. And I'm sure that people believe those things when they hear them. They have to. Who among us could face the idea that your son, your daughter, your husband, or anyone else you loved dearly, died in vain and for no purpose at all? Who has the heart to tell someone that? What commander or politician has the courage to admit it?
No, better that the soothing balm of heroism and patriotism be applied to the whole painful affair. No one needs to know about the orders that went wrong, or the jeep that hit a pothole and rolled over, or (God forbid) the friendly fire. Thus responsibility is avoided, and the truth of war remains where most people can handle it: out of sight.
And what if the war itself was nothing but a waste and a sham built on lies and false hopes?. Not surprisingly, many veterans lash out at that idea, especially if they lost friends. Their sacrifice has to mean something, and all those America-haters who opposed the war must be wrong. In a way, they're right: their friends' deaths do mean something. Just not what they dearly hoped it would.
Pardon me for being inarticulate. I did my best.
7 comments:
'all those America-haters who opposed the war must be wrong'
perhaps more veterans would listen to them if they did not, in fact, hate America.
tran sient,
They don't hate America. If you believe in this war, why haven't you enlisted? Are you too cowardly?
Why is it that so many conservatives seem to think that anyone who disagrees with them hates America, is a liar, or an idiot?
Could it not be that in the free market of ideas, people simply disagree about what course to take?
Conservatives claim to endorse the principles of a free market yet when it comes to anyone else's right to defend their own interests, they refuse to acknowledge that they have such a right.
There are those on the far left who act in a similar way but they are not in control of either party, let alone the majority party.
As a conservative who opposes the war, I do not think that all who oppose the war hate America, as I, for one, love America.
The frustrating thing, from the "conservative" view, is that disagreements over this war do not always seem to be related to foreign policy as to domestic policy.
Time will tell whether those who opposed the war did so because they believe we should not risk the troops' lives for so little gain, or if their opposition to Bush made them stand up against the war.
Benjamin: Perhaps you should take your shoes off before inserting your foot. It will taste better. You know nothing about me.
Many of us who disagree vehemently with our country's direction don't hate America. We hate what's happening to the America we love.
To those who wail and whale on that "unpatriotic" theme, let go of my throat and grab some discernment skills.
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