Talk about pissing on, or running over graves with a pickup track, now families of soldiers or Marines killed in Iraq can have political propaganda FREE OF CHARGE on gravestones.
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.
The vast majority of military gravestones from other eras are inscribed with just the basic, required information: name, rank, military branch, date of death and, if applicable, the war and foreign country in which the person served.
Families are supposed to have final approval over what goes on the tombstones. That hasn't always happened.
Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004:
"I was a little taken aback. They certainly didn't ask my wife; they didn't ask me. In one way, I feel it's taking advantage to a small degree. Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact."
Former Sen. Max Cleland who is a triple amputee from the Vietnam War said the slogans were:
"a little bit of glorified advertising... I think it's a little bit of gilding the lily. Most of the headstones out there at Arlington and around the nation just say World War II or Korea or Vietnam, one simple statement. 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."
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
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