......we owe them an apology. And our thanks.Yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a thought provoking perspective written by Todd DePastino, a professor at Waynesburg College. He has written books and articles about World War II focusing a good deal of attention on Sgt. Bill Mauldin, the front line cartoonist who saw the war like no other did.
The focus of his piece is a Memorial Day address that was given by Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr at Nettuno, Italy where the GIs who died at nearby Anzio were buried. He gave his address on Memorial Day. May 30, 1945.
The speech was given at the gravesite. It was apparently not a prepared text. But, according to DePostino's source (Mauldin himself, who was there) Truscott did not give the typical and expected canned speech about a grateful nation and the glorious deaths that the soldiers met. He did something unusual. Something incredible. Something unheard of.
Gen. Truscott turned away from the surely well-dressed crowd and faced the graves of the dead soldiers that he had led in battle to address them.....and he apologized.
Every chickenhawk should be forced to read this account. Truscott apologized to his dead chargers in a righteous war. Today? We'll hear Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney tell well-dressed crowds about the ultimate sacrifice that these brave men and women have made and how we honor these dead. And honor them we should, and we must. But they won't get an apology from Mr. Bush, the thought would never occur to him. But then again, General Truscott had a different perspective, now didn't he?
The article takes less than 5 minutes to read, I hope you find it as moving as I did.
http://www.post-gazette.com/...
This comment from Sgt Mauldin really hits hard and it's the one I'll close with:
"Truscott said he would not speak about the glorious dead because he didn't see much glory in getting killed in your late teens or early 20's. He promised that if in the future he ran into anybody, especially old men, who thought death in battle was glorious, he would straighten them out. He said he thought it was the least he could do."