Wampum

There are 17 names of Mainers killed in Iraq, or who died directly after returning from Iraq on the MaineToday.com "Mainers at War" page. Beside each is a thumbnail photo. A lot more names and thumbnails could be there -- the wounded. Then there are the people like the man I met at a party for one of Gracie's friends -- then turning six. We talked quietly in a corner while our children played noisily -- he was shipping out in a few days for a year's tour at Gitmo -- then not yet infamous, and was confident of his family and future, a year away from his job as a corrections officer. I met him while canvassing with Elizabeth Trice a little over a year later -- home, visibly ill-at-ease, and wanting nothing more than a transfer to a CO billet away from Portland, his old job, his old family. A man with little more than a can of beer in his hand.

The Governor of Maine can order the Maine Guard back to Maine.

I'll ask John why he hasn't. Its not as if the Republican fiction has legs at this point, and ordering them home is a lot tidier than either leaving them there to play IED bingo or rotate out without orders or pretending that the executive officer of the state isn't responsible for the safety and liability of Mainers in the Guard.