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NICE GESTURE, BUT OBVIOUSLY INAPPROPRIATE

NICE GESTURE, BUT OBVIOUSLY INAPPROPRIATE

There's been a little fuss in Canada this week over an offer, later retracted by higher command, by the 101st Airborne to give the Canadian battalion that served in Afghanistan Screaming Eagle patches to wear... to make them, in other words, an honorary sub-unit of the 101st. At least one Canadian newspaper has seen it as yet more evidence of how Canadian soldiers are better respected abroad than at home.

That may well be. But the proposed honour was, however well-intentioned, obviously inappropriate. The 101st is a fine unit, with a great history, but the same spot on the Canadians' uniforms their patch is worn on is currently occupied by the insignia of another fine unit, with its own great history: 1 (Canadian) Brigade, the unit all the soldiers we sent to Afghanistan belonged to. If the offer had ever been approved by the Pentagon, the Canadians would still have been right to refuse it, with thanks.

If the 101st wants to make the Canadians feel more appreciated, a little justice for their dead comrades that came home from Kandahar in pine boxes might be equally fitting, it should go without saying.

JUST A LITTLE TOO MUCH

JUST A LITTLE TOO MUCH HASH ON THE NEWSROOM FLOOR THAT NIGHT...

From Howie Kurtz:

"The publisher of a city tabloid apologized in print Tuesday for a headline on the paper's story about a recent fire at a psychiatric facility.

"The Trentonian's story on a July 9 fire that damaged an administration building at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital appeared under the headline 'Roasted Nuts.' There were no patients in the building and no one was injured.

"In a signed editorial, publisher David B. Bonfield called it a 'crude, thoughtless headline that cruelly made light of mental illness. In the bargain, it was inaccurate.'"