Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Feasting on the Dead
Three nights ago in my dream all I remember is feeling like a giant hand had squeezed my heart and sucked all the air out of my lungs, leaving me leaden and empty. I wanted to sink into the earth and let it swallow me forever.
Reading about Captain Peterson's funeral, I was suddenly swept back in time to the day the war became real for me; to a tiny chapel in southern California. To the sight of Marines I was used to seeing laughing, joking around in the gym, always cocky, full of themselves, suddenly overcome with grief.
Struggling not to break down.
And in my ears, the sound of a song that for years was associated with smoky barrooms and pool tables and laughter; a suddenly caught hand and a warm embrace:
Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared
Beneath the stars above
For a moment
All the world was right
How could I have known
You'd ever say goodbye?
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end
The way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss
The dance...
I can never hear that song now without tears springing to my eyes.
Because the image indelibly burned into my retinas is that of a Marine widow, lovely, fragile yet steely strong, bending over her husband's body. Fussing one last time with his dress blues, adjusting the damned stiff collar that never will lie just right. I have done that so many times....
And then gently kissing him and lowering the casket door.
Goodbye my love.
Goodbye.
Some people will never understand the gift of freedom. Not what they died for, but what these men and women lived for. But I do.
I do.
Our new President and Secretary of Defense, on the other hand, can't imagine why the newly bereaved might object to having to fend off media requests for a photo op. Let's face it - their loved one is already dead as a doornail - why on earth would they deprive the rest of us of a little look-see to satisfy our curiosity? I mean, what else are these folks going to do - sit around and cry all day? Besides, as Prof. Begleiter states so eloquently; these families owe America:
The fallen troops "died for all of us - they died for the nation, they died for the cause," Begleiter said in a January interview. "It's a right for all Americans to pay their respects for those who made the sacrifice. It is not a right held exclusively for the families themselves."
You have to admire Mr. Obama's dedication to protecting our rights; to openness and transparency. Reassuring, too, to know the press will finally be allowed to expose greedy acts of "selfishness" like this.
About time. How else will we stop the Pentagon from
suppressing
the
cost
of
war.
Damn it all. We have rights.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Feb 11, 06:55:00 PM:
Do anything necessary to build political support for Stalinist show trials. Hope for change.
By 
Cassandra, at
Wed Feb 11, 09:03:00 PM:
I suppose this sort of thing shouldn't make me angry anymore, but I just can't summon the kind of moral detachment that allows one to view vulnerable human beings as expendible means to an end.
By TigerHawk, at
Wed Feb 11, 09:23:00 PM:
It's because they support the troops by, you know, undermining their mission. If, after all, we retreat in defeat nothing bad can happen.
By , at
Thu Feb 12, 12:54:00 AM:
So why do you think Secretary Gates has ordered a review of the policy ? Again?
Are you suggesting that he too is "feasting on the dead?" Was he feasting when he ordered the same review a year ago?
By Cassandra, at
Thu Feb 12, 05:27:00 AM:
I don't know. You tell me?
The linked article doesn't say Gates ordered a review previously. He may have, but your link doesn't support that statement.
It says Gates raised the issue and was told by some unknown person or persons of reasons it's not a good idea.
And as you well know, the 'feasting on the dead' doesn't refer to Gates but to the media. If you knew anything about this issue that wouldn't have to be explained to you. The media have pressed for the "right" to publish explicit photographs of dead servicemen and women on the battlefield. The NY Times actually posted a video of a soldier bleeding to death while his comrades held him.
How lovely for the family.
They want the "right" to snap candid photos of wounded servicemembers as they're being medevac'd or treated. Of course this is prohibited by HIPAA for civilians for a variety of very well thought out and ethical reasons, but hey - these are just a bunch of soldiers and Marines.
They give up their rights when they don the uniform.
If the media REALLY want to remind us of the cost of war, why don't they write up the stories of the fantastic men and women we've lost or who have been grievously wounded? Why don't they remind us of their character, bravery, and dedication under difficult and dangerous circumstances?
Perhaps it's because a photo of an unidentified, flag draped coffin is a blank slate upon which they can write whatever they wish. There is no personality, no life to contradict what they want us to believe.
Like a good soldier or Marine, it can't talk back to them. Convenient, that.
By , at
Thu Feb 12, 10:20:00 AM:
Depressing too, that there are plenty of Americans who think it really, really important to score political points by exhibiting dead bodies. Mourning our dead "is not a right held exclusively for the families themselves.", especially if it can be used to destroy the country. These are twisted people, and I fear our social compact cannot take this sort of stress.
