A Crying Shame

Every now and then, we learn of new outrage perpetrated by our military leaders against those serving under them. And by "those serving under them," I mean the soldiers that are doing the actual fighting and dying in our current wars.

Last year it was the shameful treatment of the wounded at Walter Reed Army Hospital, supposedly our nation's finest facility to treat those wounded in service to their country. Not only were many soldiers being given substandard care, they were staying in squalid conditions.

Then a couple of weeks we learned of horrible conditions in the barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Again, it was the grunts who were being forced to put up with leaking ceilings and perpetually stopped-up plumbing.

Now, in what may be the greatest sign of indifference by our nation's leadership, comes word that at least 200 soldiers have been cremated at a facility in Delaware that normally handles PET cremations.

Whenever these various stories have come to light, Pentagon officials react with shock and outrage that such things exist.

What bullshit.

The fact that these situations exist in the first place means that someone in authority thinks they are acceptable. And the reason they think such conditions are acceptable is simply a reflection of profound indifference at the top of the chain of command.

Sure, people like President George Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates speak eloquently about the sacrifices made by the fallen, but what about their actions? How often has Bush or Gates actually traveled to Dover Air Force in Delaware, to the morgue that handles all the bodies of all military personnel killed overseas? How often have they bothered to honor those rows of coffins coming out of the military transport planes by showing up in person?

The only reason the cremation story became public is because some anonymous Pentagon officer finally did just that. He went to Dover to honor a fallen comrade who was returning to American soil.

Sure, some people will say that there's no way Bush could have known about this, that it's not his fault. On the contrary, it's entirely his responsibility. He got us into the Iraq mess, and now we're stuck. The conflict has now gone on so long that the deaths of our soldiers have become routine. There's no longer anything special about them. A coffin is just another package, and treated with no more dignity than a U.P.S. shipment.

And that's a crying shame.