Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts. <\/p>\n
Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with “Operation Enduring Freedom” or “Operation Iraqi Freedom” at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’ve been to Arlington National Cemetery many times. In some instances, gravestones will note the war and foreign country in which the person served. They have not, however, included political catch-phrases thought up by message consultants.<\/p>\n
If this were simply a matter of making the political names of the war available as an “option,” it would only be mildly problematic. Unfortunately, though, some have found that the choice belongs to the Pentagon, not the soldier’s family.<\/p>\n
Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said “Operation Iraqi Freedom” ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval. <\/p>\n
“I was a little taken aback,” Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he first saw the operation name on Patrick’s tombstone. “They certainly didn’t ask my wife; they didn’t ask me.” He said Patrick’s widow told him she had not been asked either. “In one way, I feel it’s taking advantage to a small degree,” McCaffrey said. “Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact.” <\/p>\n
The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too. <\/p>\n
“It just seems a little brazen that that’s put on stones,” said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. “It seems like it might be connected to politics.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You think?
\n
\nThis adds insult to injury. This was a man who didn’t really want to go to Iraq, but did his duty and died in action. When he’s laid to rest, the Pentagon took the liberty of adding a little propaganda to his tombstone, without his family’s permission.<\/p>\n
If a family wants the slogan on the tombstone, that’s up to them. But how many examples are there like the McCaffreys?<\/p>\n
Former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam and headed the Veterans Administration under President Carter, called the practice “a little bit of glorified advertising.” <\/p>\n
“I think it’s a little bit of gilding the lily,” Cleland said, while insisting that he’s not criticizing families who want that information included. <\/p>\n
“Most of the headstones out there at Arlington and around the nation just say World War II or Korea or Vietnam, one simple statement,” he said. “It’s not, shall we say, a designated theme or a designated operation by somebody in the Pentagon. It is what it is. And I think there’s power in simplicity.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Everything with the Bush gang is about shaping public perceptions and looking for a political edge. Everything<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I realize that the Bush gang has a stronger affinity for message development than, well, anyone. These guys live and breathe political propaganda. I only wish they’d leave gravestones alone. For Bush’s message machine, there is no “Afghanistan war”; there’s “Operation Enduring Freedom.” It’s not the “Iraq war”; it’s “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” If you develop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}