Visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day involves navigating a large crowd. Americans (and doubtless a few foreigners) of all ages and demographics clear security, pass through the visitor’s center, and enter the cemetery.
The vast majority of the crowd—at least 90 percent, in my estimation—continues past the center and walks up the hill to where the Tomb of the Unknowns stands majestic (along with other attractions—the Lee House and Kennedy’s eternal flame).
Douglas Ollivant is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and a former director for Iraq at the National Security Council. He is a retired Army officer and a veteran of the 2004 battles of Najaf Cemetery and Second Fallujah.
