Left I on the News

The San Jose Mercury News editorial page (as I suspect most editorial pages today) is given over to a series of articles commemorating Memorial Day. The subhead on the page (not online) reads:

"Give thanks, in whatever way you can, for the lives lost be heroes from the Bay Area and across the nation -- from Bunker Hill to the deserts of Iraq -- to ensure the American flag can fly freely."

As a friend just said to me, "They forgot to say they were talking about flying freely...over Iraq".

The truth is, there hasn't been a threat to the "American flag flying freely" since the war of 1812, whatever your position on the various wars that have occured since then.

I have a better idea this Memorial Day. Let's demand that U.S. troops leave Iraq now, so they will stop dying and stop killing Iraqis (who, along with Afghans, Haitians, Serbs, Vietnamese, and countless other victims of American "heroes", should also be remembered on this Memorial Day), and let's demand that the U.S. abandon its plans for future wars against Iran, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, and everyplace else. In addition to looking backwards, and remembering the dead, let's look forward, and dedicate ourselves to working for a world in which millions more don't follow in their path.