In what is surely not the last of the revelations over just how poorly the Bush Administration has treated military veterans and their families, the Washington Post reported today that the Veterans Administration, after more than a decade of lawsuits and seeking to avoid further scrutiny of its incompetence after the Walter Reed scandal, has agreed to allow the Wiccan symbol to be displayed on tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery and other national burial grounds:
"The Department of Veterans Affairs previously had given veterans a choice of 38 religious symbols, including numerous forms of the Christian cross, as well as the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel and an atomic symbol for atheism."
Where to begin? With the intrusion of the government on the constitutional protection of religious practice or with the fact that the VA actually took the time to amass a list of approved symbols? Why not a swastika? A good place to start is at the top:
"During his first campaign for president, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush told ABC's "Good Morning America" in 1999 that he was opposed to Wiccan soldiers practicing their faith at Fort Hood, Tex. "I don't think witchcraft is a religion, and I wish the military would take another look at this and decide against it," he said."
To parse this statement is an exercise in deep frustration and anger. Illegality aside, why does the President care what our brave volunteer soldiers do or do not do with respect to religious practice? Unless they were engaging in human sacrifice on the military base, they are free to practice any religion, or perhaps more importantly, none.
Criticizing Bush's judgment is too easy. But isn't there anyone in the VA who cared enough about the fallen soldiers and their grieving families to not bureaucratize their choice of gravestone inscription? I am sure this will be great for recruiting volunteers for the endless War on Terror.
