And another thing

Dave Noon wonders why US presidents continue the tradition of sending a wreath to commemorate Confederate war dead. There's an interesting back-and-forth in the comments about Memorial Day being a generic holiday to honor the dead without making moral judgments on the righteousness of the conflict they were involved in. Which, as I note below, would exclude most conflicts in American history.

This would be palatable. It is not, however, anywhere near the way Memorial Day is actually celebrated. There can be no consideration of a war in which America was not on the side of Good and Right and Freedom. A cause is just when we decide to take it up. To think otherwise is to give in to the coldest kind of Unseriousness. From the Mexican War, the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War, through Korea, Vietnam and the Great 21st Century MidEastern Clusterfuck, America was nothing else if not selflessly dedicated to Defending Your Freedom. How? God only knows. But I'm sure somebody somewhere has an explanation, right?