Memorial Day and the Veterans of Future Wars

Although Waterloo, N.Y., is its official birthplace, many locales – North and South – claim they were the originators of the practice of decorating en masse the graves of dead Civil War soldiers. Hard to know how long it took 19th Century politicians to latch onto this Greek-inspired ritual that we now call Memorial Day as a platform for jingoism. Likewise, hard to know what Marc Thiessen will write up for Mister Bush to include in his eighth and final Memorial Day address on Monday.

No doubt something that will spur the sycophants to say: Wasn't that inspiring? Didn't that bring a tear to your eye?

Mourning the dead is a crucial, healing ritual. Praising those who have given their lives deserves a day of remembrance, not just for their families, but for us all. But even though the 140-year-old proclamation of "Decoration Day" called upon the President to lead us in our commemoration, who will be able to listen without bitterness next week to the words of  Mister Bush urging us to remember - or misremember - yesterday's wars as a means of getting us to support today's and tomorrow's? While trying to reflect on those who died, who among us will be able to stomach that man's unctuous "patriotism"?

Like all the best propaganda, Mister Bush’s past seven Memorial Day speeches stirred together truth and lies:

2001 :

It is not in our nature to seek out wars and conflicts.

2002:

Words can only go so far in capturing the grief and sense of loss for the families of those who died in all our wars.

2003:

The farms and small towns and city streets of this land have always produced free citizens who assume the discipline and duty of military life. And time after time, they have proven that the moral force of democracy is mightier than the will and cunning of any tyrant.

2004:

Through our history, America has gone to war reluctantly, because we have known the costs of war.

2005:

The war on terror has brought great costs. For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq, today is a day of last letters and fresh tears. Because of the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, two terror regimes are gone forever, freedom is on the march, and America is more secure.

2006:

In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war.

2007:

Those who serve are not fatalists or cynics. They know that one day this war will end -- as all wars do. Our duty is to ensure that its outcome justifies the sacrifices made by those who fought and died in it. From their deaths must come a world where the cruel dreams of tyrants and terrorists are frustrated and foiled -- where our nation is more secure from attack, and where the gift of liberty is secured for millions who have never known it.

Has your headache started yet?

More than ever in this sixth year of the war in Iraq, it will be impossible to forget that also in several previous wars - the Mexican War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American-Philippines War, the Vietnam War – dead soldiers were put in the ground by criminals inhabiting the highest levels of the U.S. government. Politicians unworthy to touch the Stars and Stripes, much less wrap themselves in it to bolster their claim of having the best interests of America’s freedom and security at heart.

As in the past few years, amid the mourners and graves at Arlington and elsewhere across the nation on Monday, many of the liars who got us into Iraq will be stinking up the commemoration. Men and women who ignored or distorted intelligence assessments while denigrating and trampling the few courageous officials who objected will stain the honor of service in the name of liberty. They will reference the very American ideals that they have done their best to obliterate since September 11, 2001. Their crocodile tears will flow.

Someday, perhaps, instead of excluding groups like Veterans for Peace from Memorial Day events, our commemorations will be dedicated to ensuring that there are no veterans of future wars and that peace will no longer be seen as "too political."

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Here's a list of U.S. military fatalities for the past 234 years. Exact numbers for each war are widely disputed. No central accounting of fatalities has been made for dozens of interventions in Central America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. This is only the tally of Americans in uniform, not civilians caught up in those wars.

^{The Revolutionary War (1775-1783): Combat - 4,435/Other (disease, etc.) - 6,188
War of 1812 (-1815): Combat - 2,260
Indian Wars  (1785-1915): Combat - several thousand (exact numbers intensely disputed)
Mexican War  (1846-1848): Combat - 1,733/Other - 11,550
Civil War: Combat - 214,938/Other - 283,394
  [Civil War statistics are highly disputed - some claim as many as 750,000 soldiers died on both sides.]
Spanish-American-Philippines War  (1898-1902): Combat - 385/Other - 2,061
World War I (1917-1918): Combat - 53,402/Other - 63,114
World War II (1941-1945): Combat - 291,577/Other - 113,842
Interventions (1798-2008): Unknown – a few thousand
Korean War (1950-1953): Combat - 33,686/Other - 2,830
Vietnam War (1964-1975): Combat - 47,410/Other - 10,788
Gulf War (1990-1991): Combat - 148/Other - 235
Iraq War (2003-200?): Combat/Other – 4079}