posted
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Army sergeant complained in a rare opinion article that the U.S. flag flew at half-staff last week at the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan for those killed at Virginia Tech but the same honor is not given to fallen U.S. troops here and in Iraq. In the article issued Monday by the public affairs office at Bagram military base north of Kabul, Sgt. Jim Wilt lamented that his comrades' deaths have become a mere blip on the TV screen, lacking the “shock factor” to be honored by the Stars and Stripes as the deaths at Virginia Tech were.
Advertisement“I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member,” Wilt wrote. He noted that Bagram obeyed President Bush's order last week that all U.S. flags at federal locations be flown at half-staff through April 22 to honor 32 people killed at Virginia Tech by a 23-year-old student gunman who then killed himself.
“I think it is sad that we do not raise the bases' flag to half-staff when a member of our own task force dies,” Wilt said.
According to the Defense Department, 315 U.S. service members have died in and around Afghanistan since the U.S.-led offensive that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001, 198 of them in combat.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that the flags of all its troop-contributing nations are flown at half-staff for about 72 hours after the service member's death “as a mark of respect when there is an ISAF fatality.”
Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch, who works with Wilt at the U.S.-led coalition public affairs office, said the essay is a “soldier's commentary, not the view of the coalition and not the view of the U.S. forces.”
Welch added that such outspoken opinion pieces are rare.
Wilt suggested that flags should fly at half-staff on the base where the fallen service member was working and in the states where they hail from. He said some states do this, but not all of them.
He wrote that the death of a U.S. service member is just as violent as those at the university last week, but it lacks the “shock factor of the Virginia massacre.”
“It is a daily occurrence these days to see X number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan scrolling across the ticker at the bottom of the TV screen. People have come to expect casualty counts in the nightly news; they don't expect to see 32 students killed,” he wrote.
“If the flags on our (operating bases) were lowered for just one day after the death of a service member, it would show the people who knew the person that society cared, the American people care.”
I think we should fly the Flag at half - staff until every soldier returns home.
or
If not....why dont the U.S come up with a flag honoring our fallen soldiers. We can keep the flag at FUll - Staff and fly the Flag honoring the fallen soldiers underneath the American Flag.
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The other night on Jay Leno show, he had Bill Maher as his guest. Bill Mayer had suggested that all fallen soldiers should be on the front page of the newspapers the same way the fallen students were. No disrespect to the students, just respect to all who fall. I guess the problem is that the soldiers are old news and the students tragedy is new news.
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No, the problem is that the Administration has forbidden the news media to even have the necessary information to put the deaths of our fighting men and women where the public can view it, claiming, of course, that it is to protect the families privacy, when in truth it is to keep you from even knowing it and understanding the Administration brought these deaths unnecessarilly (and willingly....eagerly?).
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it's not that they are old news IMO..Jim Lehrer posts their pix and names every night on the News Hour, it's just that in war you don't do this, you would have half staff all the time, and that's not (IMO) how a Warrior would want the flag to fly either... a warrior wants thier flag to fly high and proud...
so? the "special flag" seems like the best idea to me.. fly it just under the Stars and stripes...
and bdgee i agree that the Pentagon was wrong to try to censor pix of flag draped coffins.... but they learn(ed) quick...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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It should have been understood in a free society where the Government and the military are responsible to the people, rather than the other way around, that information about the ugly side of war cannot be forbidden to the people.
(I do not believe it was a decision of the military, but one dictated to them, along with instructions to claim it came from the military, by dubya and gang. I am not saying the military was necessarilly against the idea, but that is a different story.)
I believe it was understood, beforehand, that it was not proper to secret information about combat deaths and injuries. I certainly believe they understood that knowledge of the bad side of war is among the rights of the people, but this administration intended to defy and undermine the Constitution and the power of the people.
If you voted for these fascist and aren't ashamed, you must have some sort of serious deformity of intellect or moral fiber.
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The truth of the matter we are a nation that has been shelterd from a lot of wars terrible affectes.
This country goes to war to easy because most don't have to go off to it and we are a wealthy enough nation not to feel the finanicial effects in our society.
Its been a long time since our nation was united against a common enemy that we shared the sacrifice by most people the only one I can recall in recent history was WWII.
it has been a gereration or more since that and a lot of wars filth has been forgotten.
it's not that they are old news IMO..Jim Lehrer posts their pix and names every night on the News Hour, it's just that in war you don't do this, you would have half staff all the time, and that's not (IMO) how a Warrior would want the flag to fly either... a warrior wants thier flag to fly high and proud...
so? the "special flag" seems like the best idea to me.. fly it just under the Stars and stripes...
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I am not sure i have any idea what might be best for our troops. After awhile these things seem to lose their initial impact, like the MIA-POW flags, although they still have some impact to some people. Do you fly that new flag above or below the POW-MIA flags? Some how i think many of these possible reminders might be better served after our troops are all home and safe and do not have to think about possibly heading into combat another time.
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quote:Originally posted by bond006: The truth of the matter we are a nation that has been shelterd from a lot of wars terrible affectes.
This country goes to war to easy because most don't have to go off to it and we are a wealthy enough nation not to feel the finanicial effects in our society.
Its been a long time since our nation was united against a common enemy that we shared the sacrifice by most people the only one I can recall in recent history was WWII.
it has been a gereration or more since that and a lot of wars filth has been forgotten.
Oh well my to cents anyway.
The cost of freedom my friend, the cost of freedom. Go back a couple hundred years and the stories are breathtaking.
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