Newspaper Article

War debate shouldn't go to 'waste', Discussing troop deaths but avoiding use of the 'W' word denies truth to a grieving country

KENNETH C. DAVIS. Kenneth C. Davis is the author of "Don't Know Much About History."

2007

Overview

In a recent unscripted moment, Republican Sen. John McCain remarked to David Letterman, \"We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives, over there.\" McCain should have taken a cue from the public spanking Democratic Sen. Barack Obama had received only a few weeks earlier when he spoke the unspeakable: \"We now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.\" Chastened and apologetic, both men quickly covered their tracks by claiming they should have said \"sacrificed,\" not \"wasted.\" In word-wise America, \"sacrifice\" has triumphed as the socially polite term of choice for referring to the now more than 3,400 American lives lost in four years of difficult fighting in Iraq. As the wounds of the Civil War were forgotten in the early 20th century, Decoration Day emerged as the kickoff for summer picnics. But the deadly trenches of World War I, the \"war to end all wars,\" gave Decoration Day, later renamed Memorial Day, a new salience. Inspired by \"In Flanders Fields,\" a Canadian army surgeon's poem, the poppy became the symbol of the holiday's poignant purpose - remembering the fallen soldier.

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