The worst thing in the world is to out live...

Also to solemnize our Memorial offerings this Day. The opinion of a veteran of foreign wars, a scholar, and the father of a man who died in Iraq, serving as his father had done before. His words are the truth of the fine hammered steel of woe. And I ask, after you read, that we pray again as we were each taught, in honor of those whose prayers are now mute. "Our Father who art in heaven...

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.