Don’t Ask for Whom the Flag Flies

Flags on state property now perpetually fly at half-staff.

We lose a 93-year-old ex-president in December. State legislators from the same era die off. A 23-year-old G.I. from Casper is gunned down in Iraq. A 25-year-old ex-marine from Cheyenne working as a hired gun for Blackwater survives a copter crash in Baghdad but is executed mafia-style by "unknown assailants" before he can escape.

The flags may never get back to their rightful places atop the poles. The State Capitol flies the U.S. and state flags, as well as the black M.I.A. banner that marks another doomed crusade. That flag has become as much a part of Vietnam-era icons as The Wall and footage of a napalm-scorched Vietnamese girl wandering down a country road, a newsreel that plays a continuous loop in our heads.

Now that Bush’s "Surge" for Iraq seems imminent, we can forget about those flags returning to normal.

We can’t help but resurrect a question asked by a young Vietnam vet named John Kerry: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"