Honor Kennedy By Fixing Arlington

Ted Kennedy will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery today, but for many soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan the wait for an Arlington burial is a lot longer, writes Mark Benjamin at Salon. Kennedy himself once intervened for a Massachusetts family who was told they’d have to wait at least six weeks to bury their son, more if they wanted a service. Those waits have grown even longer, in some cases stretching months.

Nor is that the only problem at Arlington. The cemetery doesn’t have a digital system for keeping track of its plots, despite millions spent to develop one—the project has been plagued by fraud. As a result, the cemetery isn’t entirely sure which bodies are buried where, even in a newer cemetery section. “These are not isolated incidents,” said the head of a veterans’ group. “There are deep-rooted problems at Arlington.” (More Arlington National Cemetery stories.)