"They died for their country," read the white granite memorial in the
Concord, Massachusetts town square, honoring local men who died in the
Civil War. Newer headstones mourned Concord men who gave their lives in
other wars -- practically every war America has fought -- belying the
recent baiting of quintessentially blue-state Massachusetts as a place
whose citizens lack patriotism. I was in town, on the first anniversary of
Sept 11, speaking at a local church that had lost one of its most active
members on a hijacked plane, a man named Al Filipov. It was clear then --
and clearer now -- that these honored dead would not be our nation's last.
I thought of Concord when George Bush urged us, this past Memorial Day, to
redeem the sacrifices of our soldiers in Iraq by "completing the mission
for which they gave their lives." But what if this mission (which will, of
course, claim more lives) itself is questionable, and founded on a basis
of lies?
Forty-eight Concord men died in the Civil War, which the memorial called
"the War of the Rebellion." They indeed died for their country, turning
the tide at battles like Gettysburg and helping end the brutal oppression
