A Garden of Stone

“They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what you make them. They say, Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say: it is you who must say this. They say, We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning. We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.” - Archibald MacLeish, “The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak”

The cemetery was supposed to be their last place of sanctuary. No one would be allowed to use their names and honors for political purposes. It hardly seemed worth stating. Who would want to do such a thing? But rules and regulations were required to protect members of the U.S. military and their families from intrusion by ambitious politicians hoping to utilize their sacrifices for political gain. The idea of stating the obvious seemed absurd. Surely, no politician would ever dare pass through the gates of Arlington National Cemetery and think to produce a campaign TV commercial. Who walks among those gardens of stone and contemplates themselves? Had America ever produced such a politician?

We now have our obvious answer. He stood over a carved tombstone, offered a thumbs up, and a happy smile. The U.S. Marine, who lay at his feet, would have previously been grouped with other people who had served their country and were identified by the politician as “suckers and losers.” The family of Sgt. Nicole Leeann Gee surely did not want their daughter remembered as the Marine whose name became associated with a violation of the hallowed grounds of Arlington, a place where ceremony and respect offer the only available salve for service a member’s death. Sgt. Gee died helping refugees evacuate Afghanistan. A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. She was 23. The family, however, had invited the politician.

The honors Sgt. Gee is reported to have earned in her short life of service include a Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Good Conduct and National Defense and Afghan Campaign medals as well as one for service in the Global War on Terrorism, a NATO Medal, and an Expert Rifle Qualification. The man standing behind her headstone, who appears to be posing for selfies at one of his cocktail parties, escaped military service when a doctor friend of his father’s signed a statement saying there were bone spurs present in the draftee’s heels. The doctor’s daughters later told the New York Times the diagnosis was provided as a favor, and now that particular lie was afoot in Section 60, a place of rest and painful truths for casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

The former president tried to blame Nicole’s death on the current American president. It was, however, the former, and not the latter, who negotiated directly with Taliban terrorists and excluded the Afghan army. He also made American troops vulnerable to attack by drawing down their numbers from 13,000 to 2,500 while additionally ordering the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison; one of whom became the new leader of Afghanistan. In a moment incomprehensible for most Americans, he intended to invite Taliban leaders to Camp David on the anniversary of the September 11th attack. He also negotiated a May 1 date for withdrawal of U.S. troops and then bragged about not having an exit strategy. In a meeting with his advisers in 2017, Trump reportedly said, "When my generals come to me and say, ‘Sir, you can't do that,’ I say, ‘I don't care, I don't need an exit strategy.’" The DOHA agreement, he constructed in February of 2020, set the stage for American withdrawal in 2021 under President Biden. The former president, however, had shut down every airbase in Afghanistan except one, which made safe extraction nearly impossible for troops and refugees. The ousted president also refused to brief the incoming administration.

And yet there he stood, temporarily befouling a brave American’s place of rest, desecrating God’s little acre with his mere presence.

“I have never stood over a grave and smiled and gave a thumbs up, but if I live longer than he does, I probably will.”

The other marker in that photo violates the privacy and grief of a second family even though no consideration appears to have been given Major Moises Abraham Navas. His life and loss is diminished almost to a prop for a photo opportunity. Navas was a 34-year-old Marine when he suffered fatal wounds in 2020 trying to clear caves of ISIS fighters in North Central Iraq. His service, too, was covered in glory with awards and decorations that included a Purple Heart; the Joint Service Commendation Medal; the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal; the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and several others. He received his rank promotion from Captain to Major posthumously and left behind his parents; his wife; a daughter; three sons; and two brothers. His memory and sacrifice ought not be dragged into presidential politics, either. Donald Trump was president when Major Navas and his comrade, Gunnery Sgt. Diego Pongo, died in Iraq, but that does not make for a good campaign story.

I have never known of anyone standing over a grave and giving a smiling thumbs up. There can be no worse way to demean the memory of a person who died in service to their country, a thought that would not have entered the convicted con Don’s head. A social media meme succinctly captured a wide emotional response to the photograph. It said, “I have never stood over a grave and smiled and gave a thumbs up, but if I live longer than he does, I probably will.”

None of these indignities seem to bother the Trump campaign. In fact, when informed in advance of federal laws that make illegal any form of photography or partisan political activities at Arlington National Cemetery, a Trump staffer is reported to have physically pushed aside a cemetery employee. A campaign spokescum said the official was a “liar” and that there was no altercation. The man in charge of Trump’s runaway train, Chris LaCivita, who devised the “Swift Boat” attacks on Senator John Kerry’s military record, referred to Army commanders as “hacks” and another paid defender of Trump said the cemetery worker must have had a “mental health episode.”

The tenor of the conflict between the campaign and Arlington emanated from the fact that Trump’s team was filming in Section 60, where young families with children come to visit parents recently lost to war. Pain is acute and recent and Arlington enforces rules to protect those suffering the new losses. The Army, in an unprecedented move following the Republican campaign’s altercation with an Arlington employee, issued a statement defending the cemetery staffer’s claims and rebuking Trump’s team and their behavior.

"Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds," the Army's statement said. "An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside," but "acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption. This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation's fallen deserve."

Keeping to his predictable protocol, the former president tried to fade the heat and blame someone else for the intrusion onto sacred soil. Said he did not know of any rules and regulations even though his campaign staff had been in touch with Arlington’s management a few weeks prior to the photo op, and they had been informed. Trump then told a reporter that he feels like he was made to look bad by someone who conspired against him. If so, he was done in by his own ignorance and arrogance and insensitivity. Difficult as it might be for the sane to imagine, he accused a Gold Star Family, those who had lost a child to war, of setting him up for the controversy. His actions were illegal, regardless of the fact that he got the House Speaker, who has claimed god speaks directly to him, to intervene with the Army. That god, the same one that MAGAts like the Speaker believe saved Trump from an assassin’s bullet, apparently decided young Marines needed to die and that it was okay for their graves to be used in a political commercial.

The public, in particular the Democrats, need to demand the Army release the report that was filed after the incident. The American government has spent too much time lying to its soldiers, Marines, Navy seamen, airmen, and everyone called to the colors. There were no WMD in Iraq, but there was oil, and securing access to it is a hell of a thing to ask a man or woman to die for, but some did, and their caskets were wrapped in flags and shrouded with the greater lie that they were defending our freedoms. Their honorable service to dishonest politicians is a moral contradiction creating a rot at the core of our democracy. We do not honor their memories by allowing a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, serial philanderer, insurrectionist, and pathological liar to even trod the ground where they rest, nor can we tell lies to the families of the fallen.

Or they will have died in vain.