Memorial Day

The headline reads:
U.S. deaths near grim Memorial Day mark

BAGHDAD - Americans have opened nearly 1,000 new graves to bury U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Memorial Day a year ago. The figure is telling — and expected to rise in coming months.

In the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year.

For the 4th time since my WWII veteran father died I took my mother out to visit his final resting place at Willamette National Cemetery. It's a big place - veterans from WWI, WWII, Korea and an increasing number from Vietnam. There were the widows, sons and daughters paying their respects but there is one image that will stick in my mind. There was a young woman in her mid twenties and two small children sitting on the ground by a grave marker. Now I don't know if that was a husband and father they were morning or if that person died in George Bush's war for oil but the image will remain.

More thoughts can be found at The Gun Toting Liberal and The All Spin Zone.