Dishonoring The Dead

Each soldier that falls in battle, regardless of where and when should be honored with dignity. Each soldier deserves their own memorial for their ultimate sacrifice and the loss for the families. Soldiers were honored individually at Fort Lewis but now they will join a growing number of bases that have mass ceremonies. The reason for this is due to the large increase in soldiers killed who were based out of the fort.

From The Olympian:

Fort Lewis, which this month has suffered its worst losses of the war, will no longer conduct individual memorial ceremonies for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Instead, the post will hold one ceremony for all soldiers killed each month, the Fort Lewis acting commanding general, Brig. Gen. William Troy, wrote in a memo to commanders and staff last week.

“As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies,” Troy wrote in the memo, according to a copy obtained by United for Peace Pierce County and posted on the group’s Web site. A post spokesman confirmed the policy change Tuesday. It will start in June.

The Fort has lost 124 soldiers in the last five years of war, with 16 just this month. I see no reason why they cannot do individual services despite the increase in those that have fallen. Shame on William Troy for changing the policy and even more for the architects of this failed war. The President and the military do not support the troops while they are alive and fighting. Now they will not even honor them after they have died, leaving a trail of mourning families that Bush and his warmongers cast aside.