Obama Honors Troops On Memorial Day
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David Quigg:
Cheney Should Remember -- Really Remember -- Our Fallen Troops
If today were any day other than Memorial Day, I wouldn't make it to the end of this sentence without flinging some heartfelt insult at Dick Cheney.
But this day isn't about Dick Cheney, and it sure as hell isn't about my pampered civilian ass. This day is about Americans who died in uniform. This day, by extension, is about the barely noticed cataclysm our country endures every time a combat death cheats an American out of a dad, a mom, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, an uncle, an aunt, a cousin, a neighbor, a friend. This day is about loss.
Cheney displayed a basic ingratitude toward that loss in last week's speech at the American Enterprise Institute. The ingratitude is not unique to Cheney. It's a type of ingratitude that's comfortable for many, if not most, of us. It's an accounting trick we do. Something worthy of the crooks at Enron. We take the deaths of soldiers and move them off our balance sheets.
It's only by cooking the books in this way that Cheney could tell his AEI audience about the Bush Administration "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11." That, after all, is a statement that only makes sense if we accept a definition of "our people" that excludes members of the American military.
I'd like to believe that we would stop accepting that twisted definition of "our people" if the number of American military deaths in the "war on terror" ever surpassed the number of Americans who died on 9/11. I'd like to believe that. But I know it's not true. The military toll surpassed the 9/11 toll way back in 2006. Yet nearly three full years after that tragic milestone and the thousands of deaths it encompasses, Cheney is able to tell us about the "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11." And we're able to listen, saving our skepticism and outrage for Cheney's more newsworthy claims about waterboarding. We're able to tacitly accept the idea that the military dead don't count as "our people." LinkHere
But this day isn't about Dick Cheney, and it sure as hell isn't about my pampered civilian ass. This day is about Americans who died in uniform. This day, by extension, is about the barely noticed cataclysm our country endures every time a combat death cheats an American out of a dad, a mom, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, an uncle, an aunt, a cousin, a neighbor, a friend. This day is about loss.
Cheney displayed a basic ingratitude toward that loss in last week's speech at the American Enterprise Institute. The ingratitude is not unique to Cheney. It's a type of ingratitude that's comfortable for many, if not most, of us. It's an accounting trick we do. Something worthy of the crooks at Enron. We take the deaths of soldiers and move them off our balance sheets.
It's only by cooking the books in this way that Cheney could tell his AEI audience about the Bush Administration "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11." That, after all, is a statement that only makes sense if we accept a definition of "our people" that excludes members of the American military.
I'd like to believe that we would stop accepting that twisted definition of "our people" if the number of American military deaths in the "war on terror" ever surpassed the number of Americans who died on 9/11. I'd like to believe that. But I know it's not true. The military toll surpassed the 9/11 toll way back in 2006. Yet nearly three full years after that tragic milestone and the thousands of deaths it encompasses, Cheney is able to tell us about the "policies that have kept our people safe since 9/11." And we're able to listen, saving our skepticism and outrage for Cheney's more newsworthy claims about waterboarding. We're able to tacitly accept the idea that the military dead don't count as "our people." LinkHere
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:41 PM
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