How a nation treats its own dead, as well as the enemy, speaks volumes
Those of us of a certain sell-by date recall John Paul Vann’s searing tale of Vietnam in Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie.
The title resonates in light of recent screw-ups by the U.S. military, with the addition of one letter: a bright shining line:
— There is a bright shining line against sloppy record-keeping and mis-identified graves at the final resting places of America’s heroes, as the Army did at Arlington National Cemetery.
— There is a bright shining line against abusing Iraqi prisoners in the Army’s custody at Abu Ghraib.
— There is a bright shining line against sending pieces of unidentified and cremated U.S. warriors off to landfills as their final resting place, as the Air Force did from its mortuary at Dover Air Force Base.
— There is a bright shining line against improper handling of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as unidentified U.S. troops allegedly mistakenly did at Bagram a week ago.
— There is a bright shining line against sending the incinerated, unidentified traces of those killed on 9/11 off to a landfill, as retired Army general John Abizaid said Tuesday had been done.
In the overall scheme of things – two wars, 9,000 dead, more than $1 trillion spent, with much more to come – each of these episodes is merely a molehill on a long, painful road. But the fact they keep happening – the fact that no one apparently stopped in mid-stride and said: Is this right? is troubling. After all, if you can’t nail the little things, how can you hope to get the big things – like winning a war – right?