Remember to Remember

26-May-2008 (one comment)

Last Thursday, the soldiers of the Third United States Infantry Regiment (the Old Guard) placed a small American flag in front of each of the 260,000 or so grave markers in Arlington National Cemetery. The soldiers remained on duty throughout the weekend, replacing flags that had fallen or been removed, to ensure that each grave was appropriately decorated and honored on Memorial Day.

This decades-old tradition exemplifies the attention the military pays to honoring its veterans and, above all of course, its fallen warriors. But what of the rest of us? Most of us in the Washington area didn’t visit Arlington this weekend. Most of us across America aren’t participating in Memorial Day services or commemorations.

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IS A "GOOD" SOLDIER A "DEAD" SOLDIER?

by almo5000 on Mon May 26, 2008 06:46 AM PDT

In US, they encourage the young students and high school grads to join the military (a voluntary service). They are made all sorts of promises in terms of benefits and what not. As we know from the recent experiences of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, when these poor souls are injured and return, they are not given the medical services that they need, or promised. Many of them become homeless (even from Vietnam era there are still many homeless veterans) and jobless with all sorts of mental disorder. Isn't a good soldier in US a dead one?