This Space For Rent?

Well it looks like someone at the Pentagon is working overtime to figure out how to "build support" for the troops:

Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.

Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.

This is, of course, just in case family & friends happen to forget where their loved ones gave their lives I suppose?

The vast majority of military gravestones from other eras are inscribed with just the basic, required information: name, rank, military branch, date of death and, if applicable, the war and foreign country in which the person served.

That was so last century when wars didn't have cool "slogan-like" names. Today's wars have to be EXTREME to appeal to the kids! That's just marketing 101.

Families are supposed to have final approval over what goes on the tombstones. That hasn't always happened.

Because families just don't get it.

Like that silly flip-flopper Cindy Sheehan.

Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.

"I was a little taken aback," Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he first saw the operation name on Patrick's tombstone. "They certainly didn't ask my wife; they didn't ask me." He said Patrick's widow told him she had not been asked either.

"In one way, I feel it's taking advantage to a small degree," McCaffrey said. "Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact."

How do you know that Patrick didn't want to be there? Who are you? His father? Ask Michele Malkin, she'll tell you: he probably wanted to be there just like Casey Sheehan. Why do these people hate America so much?

The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.

"It just seems a little brazen that that's put on stones," said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. "It seems like it might be connected to politics."

Uh oh. I think Jeff can say goodbye to that particular contract!

Lots more comedy in the article. Read for yourself.