I know I've been harping on the current administration's mistreatment of dead and wounded soldiers, but this editorial (by, *gasp* a Republican!) has some particularly poignant passages.

"Finally, there is an asymmetry to the administration's use of the military in presidential events. It is wrong to bask publicly in glory on the deck of an aircraft carrier unless you are also willing to grieve openly for fallen soldiers. You can't wrap yourself in the flag while avoiding flag-draped coffins."

Most of the editorial describes his own job preparing for press to arrive at Camp Lejeune after 241 marines were killed in Beirut in 1983. He says, "At that moment, in that place, I felt a sense of moral accountability for my own minor role in White House affairs." We could do with a little more moral accountability these days, not just lip-service.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about bringing the media in to memorial services, and it's certainly a slippery slope between sharing in someone's grief and using it as a publicity stunt. So I don't know that I completely agree with everything this guys says...but the bottom line is, I think we would be better off thinking of our country as more of a community, and considering the lost lives to be a loss to our country, not just their individual families. There should be more sharing of the grief that inevitably comes with war, and our president should be leading that movement.