1115.org

As with every other holiday, Memorial Day has become just another excuse to have a White Sale, go to the beach, or just pound some Budweiser like a real red-blooded American does. Expecting an ADD nation to remember much more than their PIN number is asking a lot, and remembering fallen soldiers, who most of us didn’t know, is made even more difficult when a program running the names of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan is boycotted by one of the largest broadcasting companies in the country, pictures of the flag-draped coffins returning from the wars aren’t allowed to be photographed, and the mission still causing deaths almost daily was declared “accomplished” more than two years ago.

And who wants to remember how these kids are dying in a war sold on a fluid set of rationales, all long since proven false? Not the American people who were duped, not the press who was complicit, and certainly not the administration who used their deaths to buy themselves another four years to rape the Constitution and roll back any hint of progressive legislation.

One of the most moving experiences in my life took place the week of the Republican National Convention in New York last fall. Preferring to stay free, I skipped the rowdy protests in favor of the more solemn Veterans For Peace rally in Union Square. There was plenty of anti-Bush sentiment, as the pictures show, but the focus was undoubtedly on those who gave their lives in Iraq and the sorrow it was causing their parents and the soldiers who had survived previous wars.

The most heartbreaking sight at the rally was Fernando Suarez del Solar stoically holding a photograph and a handwritten poster memorializing his son Jesus, a U.S. Marine who died in the first week of the war in Iraq. He and other parents of fallen soldiers patiently answered questions from reporters for much of the day, but apparently there was bigger news the next day because there was no mention of Suarez del Solar or Veterans For Peace. In fact, it was only recently that I learned about how Jesus came to be a Marine in a story about his father’s activism against the creation of ‘green card Marines.’

Three years ago, President Bush offered accelerated citizenship to any green card holder who has served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001.
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“Immigrants are generally the first on the front lines,” Suarez said. “They should know where they’ll end up.”

While there is no way to confirm the truth of that assertion, Latinos comprise more than a third of the 41,000 foreign citizens in the U.S. fighting force, according to the Defense Department, with the largest number — 8,539 — from California. Immigrant troops are most visible in the Army and Marines, the services with the highest casualty rates in Iraq, but barely present in the Navy and Air Force, Pentagon records show.

But the problem doesn’t stop with ‘green card Marines.’ Earlier this month, the Army halted all recruiting for a day in an effort to address a growing scandal. In an effort to meet enlistment quotas, recruiters have been bending the rules to accept otherwise ineligible recruits:

Interviews with more than two dozen recruiters in 10 states hint at the extent of their concern, if not the exact scope of the transgressions. Several spoke of concealing mental-health histories and police records. They described falsified documents, wallet-size cheat sheets slipped to applicants before the military’s aptitude test and commanding officers who look the other way. And they voiced doubts about the quality of some troops destined for the front lines.

Even with artificially low standards, enlistment is down and still falling. Offering incentives to foreign nationals and breaking the rules to accept unsuitable applicants enables a fatal flaw in this country’s process of using military force. In an age when even war is marketed as if it were laundry detergent, the last thing we need is to make it easier to go to war. But by populating the ranks of front-line troops with criminals, the poor, and those without family in the United States, making it easier is exactly what we do. It wasn’t a coincidence that Michael Moore couldn’t find anyone in Congress with sons or daughters serving in Iraq for Fahrenheit 9/11. The kids doing the fighting lack proximity to political power, and for this reason, it’s far too easy for leaders to create a popular frenzy that takes the decision to wage war out of the hands of the Congress where the Constitution placed it. And since their children aren’t on the front lines, the calculation becomes academic: oppose the war and look like a coward, or score political points by supporting the war at no personal cost. The President’s Yosemite Sam act wouldn’t have seen the light of day had Jenna and Not Jenna been infantry rather than in-da-club with Ashton Kutcher. Until ground forces mirror the general population (in race and social class), war will be the primary option, rather than one of last resort.

While spreading freedom to countries ill-prepared for it hasn’t encouraged enlistment, neither has the treatment of soldiers in the field and their families. In giving the weekly Democratic radio address, General Wesley Clark touched on many of the areas where we are not doing our part to take care of our soldiers:

This starts with making sure that we have the right men and women in service and then equipping, training, and organizing them to be the most effective fighting force in the world. That means our men and women in uniform should be paid fairly and they and their families should be taken care of while they are fighting overseas or serving at home. We should be spending every penny that they ask for on things like body armor and armored vehicles to keep them safe.
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We as Democrats want to ensure that Americans in uniform receive the benefits they deserve. We insist that Reservists and National Guard members receive health insurance for themselves and their families through TRICARE, the military’s health care system, just as the active force does.

And just as importantly, we have got to keep our promises to veterans and provide them the medical care they need. That means fully funding the Veteran’s Administration system.

Of course, Clark is not only right, he speaks from first-hand experience. But what he left out is just as damaging to recruitment and therefore the forces themselves. A disturbing spate of stories ran last fall detailing the recall of soldiers who had already fulfilled both their active duty obligation and their Individual Ready Reserve commitment. These call-ups combined with stop-loss orders allowing the Pentagon to extend combat tours for soldiers past their original end dates creates one more disincentive to enlistment: unlimited combat service in a war with no apparent end.

The Bush Doctrine based on preemptive war has been a disaster. We simply must make it more difficult to go to war unprovoked, whether through a more representative military or by electing representatives of both parties who will exercise their Constitutional responsibility despite pressure and salesmanship from a trigger-happy executive branch.

Memorial Day is over for this year, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from remembering the soldiers who gave what Abraham Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion,” their lives. Almost 1700 have died in Bush’s wars. We’ll never forget those who died for Donald Rumsfeld’s insistence on sending forces into battle in insufficient numbers. We’ll never forget those who died because the administration failed to secure basing rights from Turkey before rushing into “Shock and Awe.” We’ll never forget those who died when post-war planning didn’t account for an insurgency. We’ll never forget those who died at the command of a man who said: “I think they’re being defeated. And that’s why they continue to fight,” and coined the phrase “catastrophic success.”

Our leaders, and by extension every one of us, have failed the men and women responsible for protecting our way of life. Lest we forget.