cross posted at DAILY KOS

by BarbinMD
Sun May 27, 2007

On May 28, 2001, George W. Bush gave his first Memorial Day address. At that point in time, there were zero fatalities in Bush’s Global War on Terror. On that day he said:

It is not in our nature to seek out wars and conflicts.

Unfortunately, it was in his nature and four months after speaking those words, the terrorist attacks of September 11th “changed everything.”

And as the post 9/11 events unfolded and Bush planned for his war but not for the peace, it’s too bad he didn’t remember something else he said that Memorial Day:

We know that they all loved their lives as we love ours. We know they had a place in the world, families waiting for them, and friends they expected to see again. We know that they thought of a future, just as we do, with plans and hopes for a long and full life.

By May 27, 2002, there were 34 fatalities in Bush’ GWOT when he made his second Memorial Day address from Normandy.

Words can only go so far in capturing the grief and sense of loss for the families of those who died in all our wars. For some military families in America and in Europe, the grief is recent, with the losses we have suffered in Afghanistan. They can know, however, that the cause is just and, like other generations, these sacrifices have spared many others from tyranny and sorrow.

This was when we were in Afghanistan, going after al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and those responsible for attacking America. But as we now know, the plans for Iraq had been made months before and on this Memorial Day, Bush floated one of the talking points for the upcoming war:

...In the nearly 14 decades since, our nation’s battles have all been far from home. Here on the continent of Europe were some of the fiercest of those battles, the heaviest losses, and the greatest victories.

And in all those victories American soldiers came to liberate, not to conquer.

Less than a year later, the mission was accomplished and when Bush made his third Memorial Day address on May 26, 2003, there were 275 total fatalities in his GWOT. On that day he said:

…we have laid to rest Americans who fell in the battle of Iraq. One of the funerals was for Marine Second Lieutenant Frederick Pokorney Junior, of Jacksonville, North Carolina. His wife, Carolyn, received a folded flag. His two year old daughter, Taylor, knelt beside her mother at the casket to say a final goodbye.

read more at DAILY KOS