Memorial Day is not just for picnics

May 26, 2007

Guest Post by Morbo

For many people, Memorial Day is a time to go to a picnic, hit the beach or just enjoy a day off work.

That’s fine, but we should remember it’s also a day to stop and reflect on those who have died fighting our nation’s wars. For some, this might mean visiting the gravesite of a family member who served in World War II, Korea or Vietnam and leaving flowers or simply freshening up the area.

But there’s something else you can do without leaving your computer that’s worthwhile this weekend. The Washington Post runs a project called “Faces of the Fallen.” It’s a photo gallery of soldiers who have died in Iraq. By clicking on a photo, you can read about the soldier’s hometown, his or her unit and how he or she died. Often there are links to articles in hometown newspapers with more information about the soldier.

Reading some at random is a sobering experience. Most of these soldiers are in their 20s. The articles about them in the local papers give a sense of the lives they led and remind us how tragic is to see such promise snuffed out at a young age.

As of May 25, the Iraq casualty rate for U.S. personnel stands at 3,802. Reading about some of the fallen is a reminder of how important it is that we bring the rest home. No more young lives full of promise and potential should be lost to this folly.

Oh dear god in heaven. Most of these boys are younger than my sons. What did they die for????

Do you think Bush and his handlers have ever looked at these young (and old) men and women and have seen them for what they truly are? Human beings, with full lives ahead of them.

The question I have is how many of these casualties died in hospital, out of the theatre of combat? Were those deaths counted among these “KIA”?

Anyone know?

  • And let us not forget that Bush still has not gone to a funeral for a killed serviceman, has not even been to Dover to witness the return of the flag draped caskets and still bans pictures of the same. The man should be ashamed to be seen on Memorial Day. But then, he has so much to be ashamed of it is hard to know where to start.

  • The question I have is how many of these casualties died in hospital, out of the theatre of combat? Were those deaths counted among these “KIA”? –Phoebes, @1

    I think they must be, if the number is 3802. NYT, which keeps the daily “score” of those reported dead by the army, has the number around 3400. Most other sources are also about the same. So, the other 400 must be the ones who were lifted off the battlefield still alive, but didn’t make it.

  • Thanks, libra. I was curious because I clicked on a whole bunch of the faces and all the deaths were listed so as to seem as if they were died at the point of impact.

    It would be so like this mal-administration NOT to count the ones who died after being airlifted to Landshtul or Walter Reed.

  • It’s not news anymore, but I’ll repeat it. Many, many of the hospitalized wounded from Iraq would have died on the spot in Vietnam, for example. Military medicine has advanced greatly, although some of the wounded might not agree. Those are the poor men and women so horribly shattered and disfigured that they will never live a life that resembles “normal.”

    There are about 24,000 wounded, I think. I believe if Americans had a good, long look at them, the troops would be home next week.

  • There are about 24,000 wounded, I think. — Alibubba, @5

    And those are, only, the ones whose wounds are *visible*…

    Consider that the majority of Americans are Christians (irrespective of which particular “twig” of Christianity they follow). Add in a fairly sizeable segment of the Jewish population, who, like the Christians, tune their moral compasses to the same lode star: the Bible. It’s only the Old Testament with the Jews, but that’s where the 10 commandments are lodged.

    Including the “thou shall not kill”. I don’t know about Koran, but I expect it has something similiar, smewhere.

    So then, they join the Army, where they’re taught an “amendment” to what they’d been taught before: thou shall not kill without a good reason.

    And then… they’re sent to a strange land where, soon, they learn that they’re to kill and kill and kill, and that the only “good reason” is to kill before you’re killed. They come home for a short time, they’re send back again, like yo-yos. And, all the time, the duelling compasses are playing those conflicting tunes…

    Is it any wonder they go off their nuts? But little if any attention is paid to them, because even the ones with *visible* wounds are hard pressed to get adequate care.

    Just finished reading a story of one such “wounded” soldier. Who, finally, was shot by other Americans, on his Maryland doorstep, because he went cuckoo, after receiving the papers which told him to go back to the killing fields.

    I wish… I really wish I could transfer my nightmares to Bush and Cheney, so that *they* — who are responsible for this, as I am not — could get a taste.

  • I’m old enough to remember when gravesite visiting was what you did FIRST on Memorial Day. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the day set aside to commemorate the dead from the Civil War? Of course, there is nothing at all wrong about remembering other dead, but I notice that now we don’t observe ANY deaths. Armistice Day became Veteran’s Day. Memorial Day starts the picnic season; we give a hand salute and little else to VE and VJ days, and can anyone remember the day we removed the last troops from Vietnam?

    Fact is, and I realize that this isn’t the real purpose of your post, we have turned everything into our never ending pursuit of leisure. At no time on these holidays does anyone I know spend a minute pondering the people or events we are supposedly commemorating.

    What these holidays result in–and ultimately MEAN to the people clamoring for them–and doubtless the other holidays waiting to be born, is that people get a free day off. Now if a private business wants to pay its workers to stay home, I’m all for it. But City, State, and Federal workers already have the benifits package to die for, a virtual “iron rice bowl” in terms of job security, and a responsibility to the citizens who employ them. They should be working MORE days handling the business of the people, not fewer. Yet anyone who thinks maybe we oughtn’t to give them another day off to observe the birthday of a departed hero of the people is seen as being against the supposed honoring of, say, Dr. King. I love Dr. King. I’d put him up at the top of the list of Great Americans. But if we want to honor him, how does shutting down the Government advance that notion?

    By the same token, cooking burgers on May 28(no longer even the real day, notice) does little to show our recollection of the fallen.

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