Memorial Day Commentary: The Imaginary Line

When I am in Washington DC, I love to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. For those of you who have been there, you know it is truly a sacred space where people speak in hushed voices as the enormous power of the names on the wall overwhelm visitors. Maureen Dowd wrote about it last Sunday in her New York Times column.

For those of you who haven't been there, the names of the Vietnam War dead are listed in order of their deaths. The first killed are in the center of the V and the rest radiate out in chronological order across the granite walls. When I look at those walls I believe somewhere there is an imaginary line marking the spot in time when the American government and people realized this war could not be won, and yet the war continued for political and dishonorable reasons.

Historians may argue about where that line lies - 1967? 1971? - but make no mistake, the line exists. And on the dark side of the line are the names of soldiers, sailors, and airmen who died for something quite different than that for which they pledged their lives.

Someday there will be a memorial to the Iraq War. It took 50 years to get a World War II memorial on the Mall. And it took almost 20 to get a memorial for Vietnam veterans. I don't know how long it will take to get an Iraq War Memorial, but it will happen nonetheless.

And the imaginary line will exist on that memorial as well. We will list the dead starting in 2003. Where will that imaginary line be? 2006? 2007? 2008? Some say we have already passed the point where a victory like the one once promised by the president is possible. Others say we are on the brink. Who knows what the president himself really thinks.

What can we do today to make sure there are as few names as possible on the dark side of the imaginary line which will one day run down the wall of the Iraq War Memorial? I don't have an answer. But regardless of the line, I hope all Americans respect and honor the bravery and sacrifice of our young men and women serving, fighting, and dying around the world today and every day.