On Memorial Day
Military service is a strong tradition in my family. Seven of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution (all of them on the good side), six fought in the Civil War (one of them on the good side), and countless others served in peacetime (including my father). Both of my grandfathers fought in World War II. My maternal grandfather served in the Navy in the South Pacific. My paternal grandfather served in the Army for 20 years and was present in every theater the US participated in during World War II (and in some we officially didn't). All of his brothers served during the war.
I was raised with a deep respect for military service, and that's a respect I maintain to this day. Men and women who choose to follow the military, whether as a career path or as an emergency pledge to defend the country after attack, all deserve respect, admiration, and our enduring care after they have completed their service. Unfortunately, that isn't the case today. Veterans should be cared for by our government much better than they currently are, and the families of those deployed deserve much better support from the Pentagon than they currently receive. It is scandalous that any active-duty service member's family must rely on public assistance to survive, yet that is all too common in today's military.
I guess the Pentagon thinks it's better to pay mercenaries $200,000 per year while keeping the spouses and children of our soldiers on food stamps. The mercenaries also have no accountability:
Since these mercenaries are privately contracted, there is virtually zero accountability for their actions, Scahill said. Bremer granted all private contractors immunity from Iraqi courts, and they are not officially U.S. military, so they cannot be prosecuted under the military commission code.
Many mercenaries were implicated in the Abu Ghraib scandal and the murders of several Iraqi civilians, yet their taxpayer-funded actions have gone undisciplined, he said. In fact, he added, the mercenary's motto is, "What happens here today, stays here today."
The United States has a long history of using mercenaries in war. The Hessians played an integral role in our Revolution, and the Constitution gives Congress the authority to issue "letters of marque and reprisal," which is merely an elegant 18th-century way of authorizing the hiring of privateers. However, with as many mercenaries in Iraq as there are uniformed soldiers, we have simultaneously sold our war-making to a favored bidder while shirking our responsibility to those who actually enlist. The Walter Reed scandal affects only those men and women who wear the uniform, not the overpaid privateers shooting alongside them.
My grandfathers and their grandfathers would be outraged.
Our government has sent over 3,000 of our soldiers to their deaths for a war based on lies. On this Memorial Day, we should remember their sacrifices and mourn their deaths. The death of each and every Iraq War casualty should weigh heavy on our hearts; wartime service is for the defense of the country, not the defense of the White House's deluded hallucinations and corporate cronies. The lives of those 3,000 have been thrown away by a callous, inept administration, and that means we should mourn them even deeper.
May their ghosts haunt the members of this administration for the rest of their lives.