Thanks for the poignant post, Barron. I have long revered the bald eagle; it is such a  majestic bird. It is heartening  that this magnificent specimen is being fitted with a prosthetic beak. You nailed it, too, on the war front. Jim Webb's bill should be passed - we owe our troops nothing less.

Sad, sad, sad. Thanks for recalling the price paid for this fiasco.  Isn't amazing how so many of those Vietnam era war mongers didn't want to sacrifice their career opportunities, marriages (well, in Cheney's case he got married and knocked up Lynn to obtain additional deferments)  or mental health, let alone their lives for a war they ostensibly supported.

Of course, we'll hear the relativists telling us that number  KIA (north of 4000K and counting) and scores of thousands injured (many maimed and disfigured) is a small relative WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Easy to look at big picture and statistics when your ass isn't on the line , I say.  A prosthetic leg and no WMD or al Qaeda link isn't exactly heartening.

Worse still, is hat during the Vietnam war, only one, twelve-moth tour was required during an enlistment and many vets who deployed to 'nam didn't even serve for a year. Yet, unsat driller/early separation Dubya an five-deferment jockey Cheney, don't even blink at sending our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan REPEATEDLY during an enlistment. Amazingly, this abuse extents to the national Guard and Reserves. Unbeleivable!

My former squadron deployed to Iraq in 2006 (the heat was unbearable) and recently returned from Afghanistan. That was twice in 1 months. Where the hell is the 101st keyboarder brigade and College Republicans GWOT division when you need them?

While I truly appreciate your analogy concerning our returning vets (I'm a retired MSgt) and I really hate those that abuse any animal, I've got to say that in order to understand what a bald eagle really is, you've got to see them in action.  They are truly beautiful and majestic to see, until you realize they're only a couple steps removed from a buzzard.  Several of our founding fathers thought we'd be better off with a different bird, but the bald eagle made it in spite of it's natural nature.

WaltB: Nice post. I recall sitting in my backyard in Seattle on a nice summer morning in 2004 having coffee with my friend Bob, who is an amateur birder. All of a sudden he exclaimed "look, it's a bald eagle". I had never seen one before but there it was, majestic in its seeping glide due east, its wings extended magnificently. In seconds in disappeared over the stand of trees on the hill above my place. Oh, to have that experience again.

I wince at my typos. I meant "sweeping", of course.

Waltb: You favor the turkey? That was Ben Franklin's fave.

Don't favor the turkey, but it is a lot cleaner bird.  I just wish we'd something better than a carrion eater for a national emblem.

waltb...

How could you consider the turkey...even tongue in cheek over the majesty of the bald eagle. Having had the pleasure of seeing both nest on and near the property I had in southern Maryland I can say I'll take that  high-class carrion eater over the wild turkeys. Nothing is more graceless than watching a tom take flight and land in a tree knowing full well he's on the verge of falling to earth again.

While the eagle is a an opportunity predator, I'm still awed and thankful to see them perched, take flight or in the few rare instances I've seen, take a snake or fish in flight as well. Needless to say, looking at Beauty, while it saddens me that the bird has to get a prosthetic beak, it's good to know that we feel culturally comfortable to actually save and raise such a raptor.

And speaking of prosthetics...I saw a young Marine, Iraq War vet with a prosthetic right leg. That thing had to be the most high tech thing I've seen in a while. Very cyborg-like. Carbon fiber frame, shock absorber, miniature pistons and pivots. I've also noticed that this generation of vets doesn't hide the prosthetic.