Thursday, I wrote about Gina Gray, who was fired from her job at Arlington Cemetery for trying to honor the wishes of the families of soldiers killed in Iraq. Dana Milbank's piece on Gray and the situation at Arlington is a must read. The families wanted media coverage to honor their dead family members. The Army (read: Bush administration) didn't. Gray got canned.
An update in today's Washington Post tells us the Army Secretary wants this matter investigated:
Army Secretary Pete Geren has asked his staff for an internal review to examine the Army's firing last month of Gina Gray, the former public affairs director of Arlington National Cemetery who had worked to restore media coverage of military funerals.
Now, this is probably a PR stunt by the Army to quiet down the controversy and assuage members of Congress who have been complaining, but nothing will really change. That's what usually happens. Ms. Gray, however, seems pretty media savvy herself. Hopefully, she'll stay on top of this and keep her pals at the Washington Post -- and the rest of us -- informed.
Usually, Dana Milbank's column in the Washington Post is a snarky take on Washington politics and politicians. Not today. He writes about Gina Gray, who got fired from her job at Arlington Cemetery. It's a must read about the continuing disrespect shown to the men and women who gave their lives for this country in the Iraq war.
After more than five years, the Bush administration still tries to hide the dead from Iraq -- refusing to let the families fully honor the soldiers who died. Right across the Potomac River from the White House, in a city crawling with press and t.v. cameras, the funerals of the fallen are conducted in a news blackout -- even when the families want the coverage. Gina Gray, who tried to change the procedures, got fired. If it's not the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed, which is just down 16th Street, from the White House, it's dishonoring the dead at Arlington. Yet, George Bush still claims to support the troops. It's beyond appalling:
When Gina Gray took over as the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery about three months ago, she discovered that cemetery officials were attempting to impose new limits on media coverage of funerals of the Iraq war dead -- even after the fallen warriors' families granted permission for the coverage. She said that the new restrictions were wrong and that Army regulations didn't call for such limitations.
Six weeks after The Washington Post reported her efforts to restore media coverage of funerals, Gray was demoted. Twelve days ago, the Army fired her.
"Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I'd still be there," said the jobless Gray, who, over lunch yesterday in Crystal City, recounted what she is certain is her retaliatory dismissal. "It's about doing the right thing."
Army Secretary Pete Geren, in an interview last night, said he couldn't comment on Gray's firing. But he said the overall policy at Arlington is correct. "It appears to me that we've struck the right balance, consistent with the wishes of the family," the secretary said.
They've struck the balance ordered by the Bush administration.
General Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker just spent two days on the Hill testifying before various Congressional committees. The spinning and misdirection required by members of this administration to make their policies appear even minimally rational continues to astound, and this latest round of dog-and-pony show didn't change that in the slightest.
It's unbelievably frustrating and depressing for those of us who closely follow this stuff to watch two well-educated, highly competent, patriotic Americans sit before Congress and the American public and dissemble, either for political reasons or because they simply don't have an accurate understanding of the situation. Petraeus said he wouldn't consider reinstating the surge, which flies in the face of administration claims that troop levels are determined on the ground (if we won't raise troop levels if "necessary" and won't reduce them even after these alleged security gains, what the hell determines the force structure?), and Crocker pretended that Iran isn't the main supporter of the political/militia group propping up our main man in Baghdad (ISCI/Badr and Maliki, respectively), just as two examples.
There were some good questions, and Senators Webb, Biden, Obama, and Clinton all demonstrated facility with complex issues, and even House members, usually less incisive than their Senate colleagues simply because they have fewer staffers to write questions and prep responses, did a good job. I mean, ultimately it isn't that hard to ask tough questions, considering how intellectually bankrupt the administration approach continues to be. But I doubt the past two days changed anything -- Republicans largely screwed up the facts and called Americans with doubts about the war unpatriotic, while Democrats tried again and again to get honest answer to reasonable questions, mostly to no avail, all as per the usual -- and since all of these things are mostly pre-planned and scripted, a continuation of status quo was predictable (and inevitable) anyway. And round and round we go.
By the way, Mark E. Rosenberg, 32 years old, of Miami Lakes, Florida, died yesterday in Baghdad from wounds suffered when his vehicle hit a roadside explosive device. He's one of 18 US troops who have been killed in the past four days alone, the deadliest such stretch since last summer.
Since their op-ed criticizing the administration's strategy in Iraq began with the words, "Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment," one has to assume that nearly a month later the seven soldiers who authored the piece were achingly close to returning home.
Two of them won't be coming back alive. Yance Gray and Omar Mora, both of the 82nd Airborne Division, were killed on Monday. Gray leaves behind a wife and infant daughter. Mora is survived by a wife and five year old daughter. They demonstrated personal bravery in their service and integrity by speaking publicly about their views. They will, as will all those killed in this misbegotten war, be missed.
I want to rage against the injustice of it, the senselessness, the horror; but sometimes, as with yesterday's anniversary, I just want to note with sadness the loss.
To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day ...
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere ... In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act ...
As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged on Tuesday he was wrong in 2005 when he insisted the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes."
It was Cheney's most direct public admission of how badly the administration had underestimated the strength of America's enemies in the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.
..."I thought there were a series of these milestones that would in fact undermine the insurgency and make it less than it was at that point. That clearly didn't happen. I think the insurgency turned out to be more robust."
Under-flipping statement of the year. Lest you think Darth has had any change in thinking about Dear Leader's Big Military Adventure, well, I've got a bridge to sell you.
But Cheney, an architect of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, otherwise gave no ground in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" as he defended President George W. Bush's Iraq policy.
He said the Bush administration would still send troops into Iraq if it could do it all over again, even knowing what it knows now, including that more than 3,000 U.S. military personnel would be killed.
April 2004 (135) and November 2004 (137) were the only months with higher rates since the start of the war. Of the seven months with US casualties over 100, two have been in 2007 and four of the seven have occurred since October 2006. More statistics including Iraqi estimates and US/coalition wounded here.
What is there to celebrate about with 90 US soldiers dead in Iraq this month and yet another brutal bombing, killing 25 in a funeral procession. With the six new US casualties reported today May is on track to be one of the deadliest months.
But at least the Iraqi government is getting a summer holiday and Americans are no doubt funding that as well. This fiasco is disgusting. The daily average for US troops killed in May is very close to the terrible numbers from April.
