On Behalf of a Grateful Nation

The June 2007 issue of National Geographic has an amazing article about Arlington National Cemetery. Of all the sites in and around the Nation's Capital, there are few places that can sincerely take your breath away. There are some beautiful and powerful spots, the new WWII memorial, the FDR memorial among them, but few can bring your emotions out like the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and what to me is the most incredible place I've ever been to, Arlington National Cemetery.

Strangely, I've never seen the eternal flame or even the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Tomb Guards amaze me with their dedication and attention to detail but I've never seen the changing of the guard, the times I've been there are for family funerals and visiting their graves. Ft. Myer, the accompanying military base houses the chapel that many of Arlington's funeral are held and is also the church that my parents were married in and I was baptized in. In some ways, this is the center of part of my family's universe, the alpha and the omega.

Last year, Ms. Angry Middle and I visited the post, we were on a short vacation and we wanted to see my grandfather (and grandmother's) grave. My grandfather passed away about three years ago and I had not been able to see the headstone. A military funeral is one of the most incredible things you will ever see, the dedication of the Old Guard, the Arlington Lady, the playing of taps, the rifle volleys, the officer in charge handing the flag over to the next of kin, all done with incredible dedication, precision and compassion with an attention to every detail. The Army seems to look at the death of each soldier as the death of a member of its own family, whether it be an old, retired Puerto Rican soldier who served his country during the Second World War, Korean War, Vietnam War and onto peacetime or a brave teenager from the midwest killed by an IED in Bagdhad or Bagram.

As I prayed at the site of the old soldier and his wife, I looked over at the surrounding graves, some of which were more recently filled with much younger soldiers. I thought back to his funeral before in the fall of 2003, my family lined around the grave as we said our final goodbyes to my grandfather. The ceremony gripping us tightly around our grief. It was a sad time, but my grandfather had always wanted this, to be buried amongst heroes, and fellow veterans. My brother in law was due to deploy to Afghanistan in 36 hours, and he and my sister had driven up from Fort Bragg. Dressed in his Class A uniforms with maroon beret and jump boots, at the end of the ceremony when the honor guard had cleared, and few of us were watching, the young specialist deftly marched up to my grandfather's coffin, snapped to attention and quickly gave a minute long salute to the old veteran. The torch had been passed to a new generation of warrior.

Memorial Day is a special day, it is meant to remember those who have passed in service to our country. To me however it is a day to remember all who have served and who continue to serve. No matter what our politics are or our feelings on war and foreign policy, it's a day to salute all who have served. Arlington is a symbol of this love of country of this "giving the last measure of devotion" to a nation the served. So as we fire up a grill, sit in traffic or just take what we feel is a good day off, remember...

Biting the Hand That Feeds Me

Spring in Massachusetts is an interesting time for the state employee of the executive branch. It's the time of year that the Governor presents his (in this case) budget commonly known as House One to the state legislature for their consideration. At this point, state workers working in programs wait to see what the legislature will feel are priorities, given the governor's framework as delivered.

It is at this point that the legislature tends to stop thinking of this as a Commonwealth, and more of some strange, perverted, modern version of the Holy Roman Empire. A conglomeration of some 351 (2?) cities and towns over 160 representative districts and 40 senate districts with individual needs. So once a budget is done by the Governor, it's time to go for the pork or bring home the bacon or whatever piece of the pig that you want to serve your district and constituency.

Frankly, the budget is the most important work of the legislature all year, in some states, they would go home for the next few months, meeting on an irregular basis, leaving the governing to the, wait a second, Governor. In Massachusetts, we have had some 16 years until now of overwhelming margins in the statehouse being Democratic while the corner office was held by a Republican of various skills and attentiveness. The Governor would make proposals that usually would be overridden by the huge majorities in the legislature in what may or may not have been a positive relationship, but generally congenial and occasionally humorous

Then there are the earmarks. One man's pork of course being another man's gazebo. It is often strange what people may feel is positive for economic development. For many of us as state workers, (well those of us who are concerned about good government, but that's a story for another day) we don't know why the process takes so long or why any legislator would want to fund a program in a line item in his/her district that has no real accountability, oversight or "experts" supervising the use of the taxpayer's hard earned dues towards a civilized society.

I guess the standard arguments would be that legislators know the districts better than those bureaucrats in name your relevant agency or that they want to get the services to districts without the heavyhandedness or ineffectiveness of the state bureaucracy. Name your poison, and I'm sure that would play well back in the districts, "the state's leaning hard on us with unfunded mandates", etc. "That's OK, I know a line item I can stick this in, and there's a guy in Orange who needs a bridge fixed." Nothing necessarily insidious or corrupt about the process, but what's wrong with legislating and voting on these things openly?

This is the common refrain this time of year, that we shouldn't let the thick bureaucrats get in the way of the work that needs to be done. But what is the difference between what should be funded and what is likely a luxury. In fact, much of what is funded through these "pork" projects may actually be a decent use of funds but in these days, but how does this get decided? Is it a thorough process or a situation of expediency. Is it for the good of the Commonwealth, spending some what limited funds where they are most needed and will be used the best or is it because someone knows someone who thinks someone is doing a good job and these funds will serve a specific political or local interest that can't be funded through local funds?

In our city there is a proposal to install lighting on a football field. Anything wrong with that, heck the football team could have lights and their parents and fans, but is this the job of the state legislature? Should the people of Pittsfield, Haverhill or Great Barrington be funding lighting in our fair city? Is this a serious equity issue? One would say not, it doesn't add to any particular economic development for the good of the state as a whole, improve the tax base, etc. Probably one of those things that would be better done through a local city tax, bonding or even through the use of booster or private funding. Hell, I'll start you off with the first twenty bucks.

Mission Accomplished

Some 4 years ago today, major combat operations ended in Iraq, all our troops came home to the tremendous victory parades of a thankful nation and the great leadership of President George W. Bush, pushed the world away from the brink of an unstable state having WMD's and the US military began retooling and preparing for future threats to this nation.

I'm unsure what fantasy world the Bush administration was living in at the time or what they anticipated, if anything the sell to post 9/11 America was brilliant. Four years ago some genius in the White House decided it was a good idea to put the President in a carrier aircraft and declare that major operations were over. I suppose that we'd never asked for a definition of major combat operations, but suffice to say, there are many combat infantry badges, bronze stars, silver stars and even a Medal of Honor that have come from this "post major combat operations" era.

The threat from terror was there, no doubt, there are enemies to America out there. But this ramp up to war was a disturbing harbinger of things to come. The lies or misinformation about WMD's and imminence of a nuclear/biological/chemical attack on the United States, then the implied if not direct assertion from the highest levels that al-Qaeda was connected to Saddam Hussein, would lead first to the Rumsfeldian folly of invading with an inappropriate number of troops to the incredible ineptitude of the early Iraqi occupation led by Paul Bremer.

Post 9/11 was a time for tough talk. America revered the fact that it had a cowboy president. It was thankful that it had not elected the egghead intellectual who would have been as likely to run 100 focus groups, a candle light vigil, and a drum circle as the necessary attack the basecamps where the attacks on New York and Washington were born. This need for trust in papa GOP soon led to a necessity for blind faith and fidelity to the President and little questioning and dissent. Led by Vietnam/Gulf War hero Colin Powell, (likely one of the most trusted and respected men in America) we soon followed the drums of war. Shock and awe, air power, and lightning war did little to secure the weapons that would later help to arm the lengthy insurgency.

The canard is that you cannot support the troops if you don't support the war. Bullshit. One can support the soldiers and even support the mission of quelling the insurgency, getting rid of the "bad guys" that enact the very insane nature of the criminal acts of al-Qaeda in Iraq. But one must question the timing, whether this is truly part of the Global War on Terror as of 2003, likely it is today as we have upset the beehive, question whether this was the best policy and expenditure of "blood and treasure" (as Sen. McCain would put it)

The administration has consistently made our fear of not supporting the troops a part of their silencing dissent to all administration policies. To back up their stories, the government created a mythology about particular soldiers. Pat Tillman by all standards is an American hero. Giving up millions and fame to crawl around the swamps of Georgia on his way to becoming a US Army Ranger and lose his life in Afghanistan. Friendly fire was not a sexy enough death for the pentagon, who felt for some reason that being felled by friendly fire in the fog of war did not fit the public relations model for an American hero. These lies are an insult to the memory of Corporal Tillman and of that of every soldier that serves and their families.

When a supply convoy made a wrong turn at the beginning of the war, (also a folly of the early Rumsfeldian blunder of the blitz campaign, not covering your supply lines) it ran into well equipped fedayeen and a major multi vehicle accident. This led to many soldiers being taken prisoner of war and killed, including one Jessica Lynch. The fear of American women being taken POW is one of the major fears of putting women in combat situations. Private Lynch was a clerk, a young pretty blond woman from rural West Virginia. The military's spin machine quickly went into overdrive after her rescue, the media soon began to point at this quiet young lady as the "Rambo from West Virginia" and some suggestions were even made in the media to award the Medal of Honor, ignoring the fact that none of these extreme heroic acts were true as Private Lynch kept asserting that the real heroes were not getting the attention deserved.

There are many heroes in the field, NCO's, soldiers and junior officers that are on their third and fourth tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many that serve because they are making a difference on the ground, believe in their country and their duty. They are ill served by their Commander in Chief and those who have advised him on the road to war and beyond. We are all somewhat culpable collectively in this debacle, unable to speak truth to power as voters, unable to see beyond our own fog of fear of terror, fear of the unknown that came out of the terrible, terroristic actions of September 11, 2001. It is "funny" to think that on my wedding day four years ago my brother in law called from a "sat" phone in Iraq and on my fourth anniversary, he is again "downrange." Serving, as thousands of other's do, bravely and without the fanfare and arrogance of those who claim to serve and protect us in Washington, in the halls of the Capitol, the White House, the Pentagon, the neo-con think tanks and the cowardly newsrooms.

But to say there were not politicians that did not understand it over 4 years ago, is incorrect, I leave you with the words of the much maligned and often targeted Senator from Massachusetts.

It is impossible to justify any such double standard under international law. Might does not make right. America cannot right its own rules for the modern world. To attempt to do so would be unilateralism run amuck. It would antagonize our closest allies whose support we need to fight terrorism, prevent global warming, deal with many other dangers that affect all nations that require international cooperation. It would deprive America of the moral legitimacy necessary to promote our values abroad. And it would give other nations, from Russia, to India, to Pakistan an excuse to violate fundamental principles of civilized international behavior. Sen. Edward Kennedy, 2002