Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran

We will need more land at Arlington National Cemetary if we go to war
with Iran......lots more land..... Arlington is filling up fast.

However, American families of the dead heros have some good news:
Arlington National Cemetery Gains 70 Acres of Land.Arlington National
Cemetery is expanding to make room to receive another generation of
honored dead
Cemetery planners rely on demographics and topography to predict that
the expansion will add 35 years to the life of Arlington cemetery,
allowing it to accept fallen warriors until 2060.

There should be room enough for 350,000 more Empire veterans,
dignitaries and unforeseen heroes, an average of 6,000 per year. So
Arlington has begun its first growth since the 1960s. Recently, the
National Park Service turned over 12 acres of woodland behind the
historic home of
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which is at the heart of the
cemetery.

Congress also has approved putting graves on almost 50 more adjacent
acres, already owned by the military, by the end of the decade.

"War has a deeper and more ineffable relation to hidden grandeurs in
man than has yet been deciphered."
~Thomas de Quincey

The biggest chunk will come when offices sitting on a hill next to the
Pentagon, called the Navy Annex, are torn down. An Air Force memorial
also is planned for that site.

Sergeant Major Russell McCray, the unit’s highest-ranking soldier,
spends most of his days at funerals, though like many veteran
soldiers, he expects to be deployed to Iraq soon. “With this war going
on we’ll fill this place up in no time,” he says. His gaze shifts to
indicate nearby Section 61, where a giant machine, capable of grinding
entire trees to mulch, is crunching away at the land. “We’re gonna
need the space,” he says. Lost in a tangle of Section 61’s brush are
loving tokens—balloons, ribbons, flowers, teddy bears, photographs,
and letters—placed beside Section 60’s graves, then carried on the
wind to the resting spot of tomorrow’s casualties.

Arlington National Cemetery gains 70 acres of land but will need much
more. After years of searching for more space, Defense Department
officials have garnered more than 70 acres of land to expand the
sprawling 600-plus-acre hillside on the west bank of the Potomac River
overlooking the nation's capital. Arlington Cemetery lies just across
the Potomac from the White House, watched over by the glass towers of
defence contractors. Closest of all, a few hundred metres from Section
60, is the Pentagon.

Officials searched around the cemetery in all directions to see who
owned the land, what it was currently being used for, and the
likelihood of being able to acquire the land.

"As a result of all this, we've been able to acquire three parcels of
land so far, including the 44-acre Navy Annex that lies to our south,"
Mr. Metzler said. "We also acquired a piece of property inside the
cemetery that had belonged to the National Park Service, which was
being used as a buffer zone between the Arlington House and the
cemetery. There was a 24-acre tract, and we were able to acquire half
of that -- 12 acres." The cemetery also will use a 17-acre tract of
land that is now a picnic area at adjacent Fort Myer, Mr. Metzler
said.

We're also looking at relocating our utilities inside the cemetery
from underneath the grass-tufted area and placing them underneath our
roads," he said.

With these initiatives in place, Arlington would be able to continue
operations until at least 2060, and that would include development for
ground and columbarium burials, Mr. Metzler said.

The cemetery averages only 26 burials a day, with 6,452 burials held
during fiscal 2004, Mr. Metzler said. More than 292,000 people are
buried at Arlington.

Eligibility for burial at Arlington includes:

-- Anyone who dies on active duty.

-- Any retired veteran with at least 20 years service from the regular
military.

-- Reservists who have one period of active-duty service other than
training, who are 60 years old or older, and have a total of 20 years
or more.

-- Honorably discharged recipients of the Medal of Honor,
Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star
and Purple Heart.

Other eligible servicemembers include former prisoners of war and
veterans who are medically disabled with a 30 percent or more rating
before Oct. 1, 1949, as a result of their military service and were
discharged for that reason. The spouses of these servicemembers are
eligible for burial alongside their husbands or wives.

Any veteran with one period of active-duty service ending with an
honorable discharge is entitled to have his or her cremated remains
placed into the Arlington Cemetery columbarium, Mr. Metzler said.
Ashes of their spouses can be interred in the same location.

President John F. Kenney's gravesite and the Tomb of the Unknowns are
the most visited sites on the grounds of the cemetery. These sites
draw about 4 million visitors each year, Mr. Metzler said.

War is the health of the American state and Arlington should be a
place where Americans can visit and celebrate our past and future
wars.