Musings from Brian J. Noggle: Who Wants To Be The Last Memorialized For A Mistake?

Who Wants To Be The Last Memorialized For A Mistake?

A "memorial" park in Lake St. Louis is surprised by criticism that its memorial plaques include sections on "mistakes" and "consequences" of the wars in which the dead fought:

Plaques citing "mistakes" in U.S.-fought wars have been removed from a new Veterans Memorial Park after veterans complained.

Ralph Barrale, head of the veterans group behind the park, said he's sorry if the plaques upset anyone.

"We don't want to disgrace the city or anyone else," he said. "If we offended anyone, I am personally sorry."

At issue is information on small metal plaques that had been glued atop stone pedestals. The plaques summarized the nation's wars, with the information divided into sections, including "mistakes" and "consequences."

In another story, Barrale is quoted as saying:

World War II veteran Ralph Barrale, who is 84, says it upsets him that some in his St. Louis suburb don't want to read "the good and the bad" of America's wars. He says they are historically accurate.

However, here's some of the meat on the plaques:

For example, the "mistakes" portion of the plaque titled "Global War on Terror, 1997-Present" read, in part: "As of 2007, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars failed to enable viable governments leading to continued guerrilla fighting. The Iraqi Army was quickly crushed but the U.S. disbanded the Iraqi Army and removed civilian government employees belonging to the ruling political party leaving no one to help maintain security or run the country, which was contrary to policy used after WWII in Germany and Japan."

Under "consequences," it stated: "U.S. was accused of a Crusade against Muslims which caused riots all over the Muslim world. Pakistan became an opportunistic ally of the U.S. in its Afghanistan war. U.S. lost prestige around the world."

That's not historically accurate, that's historical interpretation. The sort of thing that's up for discussion and controversy. If Mr. Barrale wants to put those interpretation into government-sanctioned metal in a park, he wants them to be known as fact instead of what he and his other elegy composers think.

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:50 AM