I've fallen and I can't get up

From Saturday's Washington Post:

Officials said they do not know the number of service members cremated at the Kent County facility, which is identified on a billboard as Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates found "the site and signage are insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen," Morrell said. "The families of the fallen have the secretary's deepest apology," he said.

A grotesque story. But on second thought why not in a pet crematorium? Four thousand of our soldiers have been turned into dogmeat by a war that is absolutely grotesque --unjust and indefensible. Why sublimate these deaths? Let the lamp affix its beam.

The Post article continues,

Military culture instills that showing respect for the fallen is an extremely important and solemn duty. Funerary rituals such as removing flags from military caskets and presenting them to the deceased's family are carried out meticulously, while other demonstrations of respect include personally delivering news of the loss of a loved one to the next of kin.

It is so very easy to be bullied into silence by the cult of the Fallen. "All uncover, please, and cast eyes downward. Now kiss the flag." The same old bullshit, the same old lie.

Look at the way, for example, our government represented Pat Tillman as a figure of romance rather than as a pathetic dupe to romance rhetoric. Let's forget the fact (or suppress it, as our government did) that he got his head blown off by his fellow soldiers in the usual dark comedy of errors that war is. Instead it's "When can [his] glory fade! Honor the charge [he] made!" The Pentagon misrepresenting his death to try to lure in a few more, to collect some more cannon fodder.

Ted Rall was disappeared from the pages of the Washington Post for telling the truth about Tillman in his cartoon strip. Such is the fate of the truthteller in wartime.