11 Responses to The Final Inspection

1. greenwarrior May 23rd, 2009 at 6:10 pm «

   Very beautiful!
2. Suzanne May 23rd, 2009 at 7:02 pm «

   thank you. a poignant reminder of what this holiday weekend is for.
3. ubetchaiam May 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 pm «

   Imagine .
4. ubetchaiam May 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 pm «

   Moyers on Memorial Day:
   “BILL MOYERS: Finally, this week, my friend Louis Bickford spends his days, and often his nights, on the healing and prevention of atrocities and crimes against humanity. Cruelty, horror, and misery are part of his portfolio at the International Center for Transitional Justice, along with the power of memory.

   On The Huffington Post, Louis has an essay in which he says that Memorial Day is meant to remind us of the hardship of war. But he goes on to ask, “What does it mean to choose how to remember?” What does it say about us, for example, if “…we choose to remember the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, more in terms of heroism than error…” This, he reminds us, is the “…tendency of all nations.”

   Louis got me to thinking that when we meditate on war this weekend – our recent wars that is – will we overlook the suicides? Sweep under history’s rug the recent murder in Iraq of five American soldiers by a comrade who may have been driven mad by the horrors around him? Will we forget the death from friendly fire of a Pat Tillman and the shameful cover-up by the brass, including the role of the very general who now heads our operations in Afghanistan?

   What of all those villagers killed by drones remotely fired in our name? Why aren’t they part of the narrative we tell ourselves about war? Louis Bickford wonders if we’ll ever remember, “…that there was a place called Abu Ghraib on the dusty outskirts of Baghdad, and that torture took place there, for which we were responsible?” After all, he says, it was the complicity of Republicans, Democrats, journalists and lawyers – some of them scholars – that allowed us to ignore international and American law prohibiting torture.

   Over some 40 years now it has seemed to me that as time goes by we tend to remember wars, and the suffering they bring, as if they were inevitable, natural acts of history,rather than politically inspired choices. But war, as was famously said, is politics by another means – the lethal legacy of failed leadership, enabled, even ennobled, by propaganda, the partisan opiate of politics. It is good to be reminded, as my friend Louis so eloquently reminds us, that war is too important to forget, and that’s one reason to observe Memorial Day. There is another – to hold before our face a mirror, so that we might see the images of war reflected in our own eyes.
• Dru May 24th, 2009 at 9:52 am «

  Thanks for those links; I keep remembering the words of Rich Tillman at his brother’s service: “Pat isn’t with God,” he said. “He’s fucking dead. He wasn’t religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead.”
5. bluebutterfly May 24th, 2009 at 1:47 am «

   Weep for the dead soldiers. Weep for their friends and families, too, but do not ever forget why they are dead. There is no good war. The slaughter of fellow human beings is the ultimate crime against humanity. Remember with sadness the fallen soldiers who thought they were fighting to defend their country. They were mistaken, but they were honorable; unlike the people who sent them to fight and die under false pretences. The ones who send soldiers to wars based on lies are the most evil of creatures among us and they always have been.

   The scene in the video of the American coffins waiting for internment, in contrast to the Canadian and British coffins being carried openly, is a reminder of how invisible your deceased soldiers were for so many years. Kept that way by the same government who sent them to die on foreign soil for no justifiable reason. The pursuit of the control over the world’s oil reserves according to PNAC’s plan is the only reason the soldiers of all three countries are dying.

   Stop loss is preventing your sons and daughters from being drafted. This policy will not be able to be sustained much longer. The best way of remembering the fallen would be to continue efforts to stop an attack on Iran. Honor them by doing everything possible to prevent more soldiers from dying in an illegal war. If Israel attacks Iran, the US will assist because Israel cannot do it alone. The support of Israel is one of the reasons Osama declared war on the US. A fact has been mostly ignored in the MSM. Someone else admitted that fact recently; the truth appeared amongst his various lies. The middle east will explode in violence if the US follows Israel into Iran. It will truly be the last straw for the Arab countries in that area. It will result in many more soldiers being added to the list for Memorial Day.
   *******************
   ” But that’s also where Cheney slipped up. You didn’t notice? Well, Cheney couldn’t resist expanding on the complaints of the terrorists:

   “They have never lacked for grievances against the United States. Our belief in freedom of speech and religion…our belief in equal rights for women…our support for Israel… — these are the true sources of resentment…”

   “Our support for Israel.” Cheney got that part right. “

   http://www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern05222009.html
6. bluebutterfly May 24th, 2009 at 1:55 am «

   This is what the 911 Commission said about the US’s support of Israel.
   ***************
   ” But since the name Khalid Sheikh Mohammed came up, I asked my two interlocutors if they knew how “KSM” explained why he masterminded 9/11. Apparently, neither had made it as far as page 147 of the 9/11 Commission Report, so I told them what the 9/11 Commission found on that key point:

   “By his own account, KSM’s animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experience there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.”

   In the “Recommendations” section of its final report, the 9/11 Commission suggested:

   “America’s policy choices have consequences. Right or wrong, it is simply a fact that American policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American actions in Iraq are dominant staples of popular commentary across the Arab and Muslim world. … Neither Israel nor the new Iraq will be safer if worldwide Islamist terrorism grows stronger.” (pp 376-377)

   It has to do with an unclassified study published, not by some “liberal” think-tank, but by the Pentagon-appointed U.S. Defense Science Board just two months after the 9/11 Commission Report. That report directly contradicted what Cheney and President Bush had been saying about “why they hate us,” letting the elephant out of the bag and into the room, so to speak:

   “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf States. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.” “

   http://www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern05222009.html
7. Elliott May 24th, 2009 at 5:53 am «

   awesome, thank you.
8. Prairie Sunshine May 24th, 2009 at 7:17 am «

   Thank you, John.

   Remembering Clarence, USMC, and Lyle, USN, this weekend. Of the greatest generation.

   What will the generation of this time be called?
9. Prairie Sunshine May 24th, 2009 at 7:53 am «

   linked to you about this poem, John, over at my homeblog, and also reminded folks of Taking Chance Home. If this incredible HBO movie is replayed this weekend, it’s must see.
10. Marnie May 24th, 2009 at 5:05 pm «

    Pity that’s not what the Christian bible says.

    Maybe he was talking to some other God.