All of the Romance. Little of the Reality.

Even non-history buffs are likely to encounter the Gettysburg Battle lollapalooza over the next few days(*) as the nation "celebrates" three days of carnage in 1863. No doubt this year's event will be less violent but it's far too much of a pageant for my taste.

Which re-enactors do you think will play the part of the Confederates who kidnapped free blacks in Pennsylvania and took them into slavery after retreating from Gettysburg?

Hat tip for this little known bit of Confederate gallantry: The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Laveen. Secrets may be historical fiction but the the history is true.

(*)Update: Now that I look at the reenactment site, I see that the event won't even take place on the actual dates--July 1-3--of the battle. The reenactment will be July 4-7, no doubt a more convenient time for spectators, participants and maximum media exposure but another step away from reality. Hell, by July 4, 1863 the Confederates were heading south.

Silence is Consent

This came across my computer screen last night. Not exactly a Thanksgiving thought but worth passing on without delay.

Always a Racket

A friend sent me a link to "War is a Racket!  Has Anything Changed?" which is an updated play on General Smedley Butler's classic truth about war.  On this Memorial Day weekend, it is a truth that should be well remembered, although in modern America we seem to have become very comfortable with that racket to our own economic and societal detriment.  Most readers of this humble blog no doubt already know this truth but I pass it along for you to keep in mind.  Maybe you will have an opportunity to share it with someone less aware than yourself.

Not only is war a racket, it is an enduring racket.  I came across that truth is in a review of  War Time:  An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences by Mary Dudziak.in The Nation.  What really brought the message home to me was this quote:

In almost every year of the last century, American soldiers served in a conflict that qualified for a combat medal. The military criteria for wartime, Dudziak notes, “swallow much of American history.” (emphasis added.)

And so far in the 21st century, American soldiers have been eligible for a combat medal.  Makes me think that the America's oft-recited pledge should read more like,   

I pledge allegiance
To the United States of America
One Nation at war,
Then, now and well into the future.

Certainties

Adam Goodheart's 1861: The Civil War Awakening showed up this week on the media I frequent. Not surprising given that this week is the sesquicentennial year of the Civil War's opening salvo. I heard parts of a radio interview with Goodheart the other day and today I read an interview at Slate. I am an eager reader of history; the details about issues, ideas and events fascinate me. Even the Civil War. So I am sure to read 1861. Right now I am just starting The Lost Peace by Robert Dallek about the years and leaders in the immediate years after WWII. Three chapters in, things don't look good.

But I digress. Goodheart makes a statement in the Slate interview that resonated with me. Discussing why a book about one year in a conflict whose tale is much-told aleady:

I came to the Civil War very much informed by my experience with 9/11: being here in Washington and seeing mobs of people fleeing from the area of the White House, and people standing on the street corners looking at the column of smoke rising from the burning Pentagon. That moment when just everything changed, when things that had been certainties the day before suddenly evaporated into thin air, was something I think we have a new appreciation of in our times. (emphasis added)

Reading that statement, I fully understood why the 9-11 attacks did not seem to be a big deal to me. My certainties had evaporated in Vietnam. After Vietnam nothing in my life has ever been certain. I don't mean that I am constantly on guard or feeling threatened. It's just that I have taken nothing for granted since Vietnam. And even though I had never thought of planes as guided missiles, when it did come to pass the event seemed to be what a clever, determined adversary would do, especially an adversary with suicide bombers. It was an ambush, pure and simple. Well planned and well executed. Terrible in its destruction but an ambush nonetheless.

Any certainty I ever had about being not being ambushed ended two decades before September 11, 2001.

Gone to Young Men Everywhere

Another story to remember.

11 September 2008

Danny Schmidt says it all.

It was silent in Manhattan when the mountains tumbled down
With waves of dust that scoured the streets 'til words themselves were drowned
It’s a book of moving Polaroids: Jumpers jump and eyeballs bleed.
A trail of tears to Jersey. The skyline on her knees.
It’s already done.

There’s a hole in Pennsylvania where the White House might've been
Cause bad men learned to fly grenades but good ones pulled the pin
And the Allegheny sings her prayers, a heroes' mass, a single grave
Confetti ‘cross the forest marks the ticker-tape parade.
It’s already done.

Well I guess I never really understood the rules of war
And who exactly it’s ok, or not, to go and burn
Terror flies it’s flag up high -- this side white and that side black
But terror’s just the timing -- who kicked first, and who kicked back
It’s already done.

If there was hope down in the rubble I’d hoped that it was this
That in our vulnerability we’d open up our fists
And lay hands upon the ruined and lay wrench upon the come unfixed
And though we cannot heal them we shall see no more get sick
It’s already done.

Already done when I heard “less than human” come from the lips of our president
Already done when I heard some guy shot some guy right through his turbaned head
Already done when I heard eyes for eyes might somehow help us find our dead
It’s already done when I heard our boys say the same words their boys said.

If you’re gonna fly your flag my friend be mindful how it’s made
And see it’s got six billion stars and stripes of every shade
And hang it in the door frame until the door itself’s repaired
'Til all the grieving’s come its course and there’s no one left that’s scared

A Father Speaks About Duty

Andrew Bacevich, retired US Army colonel and thoughtful critic of the Iraq war and occupation, writes about his son's death in that war. He offers many piercing insights. His thoughts about the speeches we will hear this weekend is particularly so:

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

Memorial Matters

A few months ago, I wrote about the funerals at Arlington National Cemetery for Iraq and Afghanistan war dead. During the first couple of weeks there were about six or eight interments and I found that I just couldn't continue. I still read the stories but there's really nothing more that I can add.

I think I was trying to share a small portion of the families' grief. After all their loved one died in my name. Never mind that I did not ask him or her to take those risks; these soldiers died for the country of which I am a part. Never mind that the leaders who sent them to their deaths are not worthy of that sacrifice. These dead "gave the last full measure of their devotion". I will not fail to recognize and honor that.

Yesterday's Washington Post had a story about these newly interred dead, about their connection to life and their familiies. It's well written. Slate called the article a "heart wrencher". I call it understanding and real, showing how families fill the void left by this most unnatural death. Some are still in shock, others are resigned, all feel their loss deeply and deal with it as they can.

If you want heart wrenching, read Laura Linger's account of her brother's death in Iraq.

All I can say to these families is, "I am so very sorry. I will not forget."

Ciphering

If you add all the miitary and security forcefatalities listed at icasualties.org the total comes to 11,128. Almost 60 percent are Iraqi, 30 percent American. Plus more than a half million civilian deaths. Each is a wound that ripples through a family and community, always leaving grief,loss and, sometimes. hate in its wake.

Lies, Damned Lies and Military Statistics

The drop in the number of civilian deaths touted by CheneyBush as proof of success in Iraq does not include car bombings. Instead they just count the number of bodies found in the street that end up in the morgue. While the found body count has declined, the blown apart body count continues to rise. BushCheney says that to insist on an Iraq with no bombings is a "huge victory" for the enemy. A peaceful Iraq is a victory for the enemy? How strange. I thought that was America's goal in Iraq.

General Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, is a little more sober in his assessment. He said this week that the US does not expect the surge to stop bombings.

"I don't think you're ever going to get rid of all the car bombs," General Patraeus said. He added that "Iraq is going to have to learn as did, say, Northern Ireland, to live with some degree of sensational attacks."

Realistically, the general is correct, certainly in the near future, if not longer. Iraq is awash in weapons and hostility, even more so than Northern Ireland, so I would be surprised if the bombings will stop anytime soon. The fact that Northern Ireland would be a good outcome tells me how badly BushCheney has bolloxed Iraq. Perhaps that is why they discount car bomb victims.

Stateless Refugees

When you ain't got no home, you're fucked.

Hameda Um Firas has lived most of her 70-odd years as a refugee -- now she is stranded in a tent again at Iraq's border with Syria where hundreds of Palestinians have fled to escape violence in Baghdad.

"We escaped in fear of our lives. My granddaughter was decapitated by a missile attack and our sons were killed, we fled Iraq to spare our lives," she said, barely able to contain tears of anger at Arab countries she said should be helping.

[...]

While the numbers are relatively small, van Genderen Stort said the Palestinians were in a uniquely difficult situation because without passports they can not go to Syria, Jordan or other neighbouring countries where many Iraqis have fled.

"The difference with Palestinians is they have nowhere to go," she said. "A lot of them have expired identity papers which the Iraqis are not extending because it's not their priority."

"They're in a Catch-22. They're targeted, they have death threats, they have these raids, but they can't flee and when they flee they either have to do it illegally or they are stuck at the border," she said.

Killed in Action

Sgt. Ashly Lynn Moyer is interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

Moyer, 21, of Emmaus, Pa., was killed March 3 with two others while driving a Humvee in a convoy on patrol in Baghdad, said her mother, Jane Drumheller of Milford, Pa. An improvised explosive device detonated the armored vehicle's gas tank, engulfing Moyer and two other sergeants in flames, Drumheller said. Ammunition fed the fire.

[...]

A U.S. helicopter pursued four men in a car believed to have detonated the bomb and "took care of them," Drumheller said she was told. "It is sort of gratifying, yes," she said. "But it doesn't help in the end. It's just sad all around."

[...]

Drumheller said that her daughter lacked direction as a teenager but that joining the Army after high school helped focus her. She spent a year at the Guantanamo Bay military base before being sent to Germany and then Iraq. She did not like Iraq, her mother said. "She didn't quite understand what she was doing there, but she was doing it because it was her job."

Godspeed.

Iraq Veterans Memorial Technical Difficulties

As advertised, Unsolicited Opinion is hosting the Iraq Veterans Memorial. The memorial may actually appear on this site but so far, every set of code emailed to me has failed. I've tried various ways but haven't found anything that works so far.

In the meantime, please visit the memorial. It is a video remembrance of the men and women who have given their lives in Iraq. On this fourth anniversary of the war, it is right to remember all who have sacrificed.

Most of America's wars didn't last long enough to begin a fifth year of active combat. By the fourth anniversary of 7 December 1941, Japan and Germany had both surrendered. Four years after the attack on Fort Sumpter, our own civil war was over. By my reckoning, only the American Revolution and Vietnam saw active combat into a fifth year.

This generation of service men and women has sacrificed much. Please remember them in your thoughts, prayers, meditations or whatever your reflective and spiritual practices may be.

Killed in Action

Staff Sgt. Paul M. Latourney is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Staff Sgt Latourney, 28, of Roselle, Ill., died March 2 in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during a combat patrol, according to military officials. Spec. Luis O. Rodriguez-Contrera, 22, of Allentown, Pa., also was killed in the explosion. Both soldiers were members of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Calvary Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Calvary Division from Fort Hood, Tex.

"There wasn't a more noble person. He had the biggest heart you could imagine."

Godspeed.

Iraq Veterans Memorial

This site will be hosting the Iraq Veterans Memorial beginning March 17. The memorial is a video remembrance from Brave New Films to honor the servicemen and servicewomen who have lost their lives in four years of war and occupation in Iraq.



Brave New Films even sent me the trailer and I am dutifully posting it, along with some of the code that accompanies it. The errant code demonstrates my lack of proficiency in blog imagery. I think it adds a human touch to this hi-tech medium

Killed in Action

Chief Warrant Officer Hershel McCants Jr. comes home to Arlington National Cemetery.

McCants, 33, an Oregon native, was on a transport mission, co-piloting a twin-rotor Chinook helicopter Feb. 18, when the aircraft went down in southeastern Afghanistan. Five Night Stalkers, including McCants, and three other special operations personnel were killed in the crash, which military officials have blamed on the aircraft's "sudden, unexplained" loss of power

[...]

Scott Nowicki, who served with McCants in an Army medical unit at Fort Lewis, Wash., ...[praised]... McCants's skill and professionalism as a pilot during training missions and rescue operations.... "Dan was rock steady and the aircraft hovered as if it were sitting on solid ground," Nowicki wrote, hailing McCants as "a true Special Operations quality pilot."

Godspeed.

Homecoming

Sergeant Richard L. Ford is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetary.

On a day of blue skies and boisterous winds that hinted of spring, Ford became the 314th service member killed in the Iraq war to be buried at Arlington. Ford, of East Hartford, Conn., died Feb. 20 in Baghdad from combat wounds. He was 40 years old and on his third tour of duty in Iraq.

Godspeed, Sergeant Ford.

Can You Hold?

One term that keeps appearing in the stories about Walter Reed is "medical holding company", which is simply a temporary company for persons passing through between permanent assignments. I was in two holding companies during my brief military career: four days at Oakland Army Base waiting to ship out to Vietnam and just over two weeks at the 90th Replacement Battalion in Long Binh. The extended stay at the latter occurred because they pulled me and some other infantrymen out of regular processing to serve as iternal security guards for a couple weeks.

The memory I have from both experiences is being in limbo, unattached and unconnected to anyone who cares. I was just there, being processed, but other than moving me through the system, no one paid much attention to me. During the two week guard stint, I was pretty much on my own as long as I stayed in the battalion area and showed up for duty. It wasn't bad duty but I could not receive mail since I had no permanent address. What made it bearable was that it was good time not in the field and the fact that I talked my way into access to the battalion library.

The sense of being cast adrift comes back to me as I read about the soldiers at Walter Reed and other military hospitals. I had no particular needs when I was on hold so the indifference wasn't a big deal. Had I really needed something--like the wounded from Iraq--I would have been shit out of luck. They sure are.

Maybe If We Buy More Yellow Ribbon Magnets

When I met with my Congressman's staff a week ago, I asked about care for wounded soldiers and veterans in facilities other than Walter Reed Hospital. If conditions at the premier Army medical facililty were as bad as described by the Washington Post, I wondered what other, less prominent facilities were like.

The answer is in, from today's Washington Post, not my Congressman.

Oliva is but one quaking voice in a vast outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories -- their own versions, not verified -- of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets.

[...]

Across the country, some military quarters for wounded outpatients are in bad shape, according to interviews, Government Accountability Office reports and transcripts of congressional testimony. The mold, mice and rot of Walter Reed's Building 18 compose a familiar scenario for many soldiers back from Iraq or Afghanistan who were shipped to their home posts for treatment. Nearly 4,000 outpatients are currently in the military's Medical Holding or Medical Holdover companies, which oversee the wounded. Soldiers and veterans report bureaucratic disarray similar to Walter Reed's: indifferent, untrained staff; lost paperwork; medical appointments that drop from the computers; and long waits for consultations.

[...]

Sgt. William A. Jones had recently written to his Arizona senators complaining about abuse at the VA hospital in Phoenix. He had written to the president before that. "Not one person has taken the time to respond in any manner," Jones said in an e-mail.

From Ray Oliva, the distraught 70-year-old vet from Kelseyville, Calif., came this: "I wrote a letter to Senators Feinstein and Boxer a few years ago asking why I had to wear Hospital gowns that had holes in them and torn and why some of the Vets had to ask for beds that had good mattress instead of broken and old. Wheel chairs old and tired and the list goes on and on. I never did get a response."

Welcome home from the war, guys. America loves you. Just don't ask for anything.

Eyes Wide Open, Part 3

The Eyes Wide Open memorial to American and Iraqi dead made its third appearance in the Phoenix area this weekend. This installation is at Crash Arts, located at 817 W. Madison Street in Phoenix and will be on display from noon to 4:00 pm today as part of the 19th annual Art Detour. Art Detour is a BFD here, drawing thousands of people who would otherwise go nowhere near some of these places.

I volunteered for a couple hours yesterday morning. Crowds were slow during my watch but began picking up as I left around noon. Along with the opportunity to see Phoenix art spaces, patrons will also get a strong dose of reality at Eyes Wide Open.






The indoor venue gives the memorial a much different feel from the earlier installation at Encanto Park. This installation has a more somber, almost sepulchral, feel than the outdoor setting. I felt a sense of passage and change as I walked among the boots. The arrangement is no less respectful or moving for being in a confined space, just different.

The second installation was last Monday and Tuesday at Arizona State University. I didn't make it for that event. You can find pictures of it here.

Thanks to Cheri Lippmann of Code Pink Phoenix for organizing and coordinating the exhibit. She and other volunteers from the End the War Coalition put a lot of effort into this. It would be nice to think that we'll never have to do this for another war.

postcript

Crash Arts is located near the Central Arizona Shelter Services center so the area is frequented by many homeless individuals, including veterans. The juxtaposition of Iraq war casualties with our domestic walking wounded is a stark reminder that our national priorities create collateral damage here at home.