Today is Memorial Day, a day dedicated to the memory of those who have given their lives in the service of their country. It is a solemn day for those families who have made the ultimate sacrifice. For others, it is a trip to the Indy 500 and a day of revelry and fun, or a golf outing, family picnic, or trip to the lake. It is a day of sharp contrasts and contradictions.

Sixty Minutes on Sunday featured a story about the mostly volunteer soldiers of Iowa National Guard who have been deployed again and again in President Bush’s Iraq folly. It told the tale of the many sacrifices these brave soldiers and their families back in Iowa have made fighting a nearly invisible enemy, carrying out supply missions through the Iraqi desert in which mortal dangers lurk around every bend and over every hill. Those soldiers, who were first deployed nearly two years ago, began their missions with a patriotic fervor, staunchly believing that they were helping bring “democracy” to the Iraqi people. Now, two years later, having just been told that their tours of duty have again been extended for another several months, many of these same soldiers have become disillusioned after seeing their comrades torn apart by IEDs or killed or wounded by small arms fire. Many of their families no longer believe that their fathers or husbands are engaged in a noble struggle; severe doubt has now crept into the minds of many of these loyal and patriotic Americans, as they begin to question whether the sacrifices they have made will ever be fully appreciated by either the Iraqi or American people. They have begun to doubt the wisdom of their political leaders, who led this nation into the Iraq war on false premises and now seek to save face by asking even greater sacrifices from those soldiers and their families, who have already disproportionately given of themselves in the service of their country, but for a cause that few any longer can comprehend.

One of my favorite leisure activities is watching old movies on TV. Frankly, I’ve been a little disappointed by the selections this holiday, mostly old John Wayne war movies (it would have been his 100th birthday this week) which sanitize and glamorize war. I’d rather they’d shown one of the classic anti-war films, like All Quiet on the Western Front, the 1930 early movie classic based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. All Quiet tells the story of a German boy, Paul, who is led to believe by his elders that in war he can achieve true nobility and best serve his fatherland. He is convinced to join the Army, expecting the experience of warfare to be something like an athletic contest. His unit eventually goes into the trenches of World War I in Europe, where he soon discovers that war is utterly without humanity or hope. From there the film piles horror upon horror, death upon death, until the hero, played by Lew Ayres, stabs a Frenchman with his bayonet during hand-to-hand combat in a shellhole, and is forced to stay with him through the night while the wounded Frenchman slowly dies in agony. By dawn, when the Frenchman has expired, Paul plaintively cries out to the dead Frenchman, “Oh, God, why do they do this to us? We only wanted to live, you and I!” The last scene of the film is the most poignant. Paul is back in the trenches. Spotting a butterfly, he reaches out of the trench to touch this symbol of beauty and innocence. Just as his hand is about to touch the butterfly, we hear a sniper’s shot, and Paul’s hand goes limp in death.

When All Quiet was first shown in Germany in 1930, it was well received, but Nazi agitators tried to sabotage its popularity by releasing snakes and rats in theaters where it was shown. Hitler banned it entirely when he came to power in 1933, and it was not shown again in Germany until 1952, again to much popular acclaim. But the film, for all of its power, did not stop World War II, Korea, Vietnam or all the conflicts that followed, and it is seldom shown any more on TV in this country since the Iraqi war began.

As of Memorial Day 2007, 3,455 Americans have died in Iraq, 3,316 since the President declared “Mission Accomplished”. Over 25,000 American soldiers have been wounded. Nearly 70,000 Iraqi civilians have perished since our occupation began in April 2003.

Andrew Bacevich teaches history and international relations at Boston University. His 27 year old son died May 13 after a suicide bomb explosion in Iraq where he was stationed. His father, a Vietnam War vet himself, is now struggling to find meaning in his son’s death. He wrote an article today in the Washington Post. Here is an excerpt:

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.’s life is priceless. Don’t believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier’s life: I’ve been handed the check. It’s roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month….I know that my son did his best to serve our country. Through my own opposition to a profoundly misguided war, I thought I was doing the same. In fact, while he was giving his all, I was doing nothing. In this way, I failed him.

Let’s all do our part on this Memorial Day and in the weeks and months ahead to bring a long overdue end to this “profoundly misguided war”.

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