Farewell, Sgt. Fluffy

Every time the White House tells anti-war dissidents to shut up and "support the troops," we find more and more evidence that they don't give a rat's patootie about supporting the troops. Soldiers, whether alive, wounded, or dead, are just more cannon fodder for their military war on the Iraqi people and their propaganda war on the American people.

This has taken many outrageous forms, including but by no means limited to:

• Donald Rumsfeld using an autopen to put his signature on condolence letters to families of dead soldiers instead of actually signing them himself.
• Wounded soldiers being left on their own at Walter Reed Hospital to cope with filth, neglect and an uncaring bureaucracy.
• The bodies of dead soldiers being shipped home as freight.
  
• The Veterans Administration covering up an epidemic of suicide attempts and other mental-health problems among veterans.

And so on. But once the bodies of men and women hailed as heroes for their sacrifice get home, they're treated with the respect they deserve, right?

Of course not.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that about 200 American soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan were cremated at Friends Forever, a facility in Delaware which processes animals and the occasional human.

Yes, it's entirely possible that the remains of fallen soldiers were turned to ashes in chambers also used to cremate Fido and Whiskers.

The Pentagon was quick to claim that no humans were cremated in facilities used for animals, and the place would no longer be used for cremations anyway. Even assuming they're telling the truth - which is doubtful to say the least - it's kind of hard to get around the fact that the facility's billboard prominently announces it as a pet crematorium. Plus, the military literally does not know how many soldiers were cremated there.

All jokes about the troops being treated like animals aside, this is pretty darn awful. Even with all the lip service and empty "support the troops" rhetoric, one would at the very least expect the military to treat dead soldiers with more respect than this.