images: Scenes from two weddings in Iraq
Cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, and European Tribune.
45 kb images and poem below the fold
An Iraqi bride and groom walk past rows of protective bomb blast walls surrounding a Baghdad, Iraq, hotel as they arrive with family members to spend the night after their wedding Thursday, July 14, 2005. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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The driver and friend of a wedding party lies in a hospital bed receiving treatments for wounds as his sister looks on after the car he was driving was attacked by unknown gunmen killing the new bride and wounding two others, Friday, July 22, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Gunmen fired on the car carrying the newlyweds who were married on Wednesday and their families, killing the bride while wounding her mother, groom and driver in the southern Dora neighborhood, of Baghdad according to police and medical officials.(AP Photo/Mohammed Uraibi)
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Ahmed Salam, brother of new bride Salay, foreground, reacts after requesting to see his sister’s body at the Yarmouk hospital after the wedding party was attacked by unknown gunmen killing Salay, 22, and wounding her mother and the groom Iraq soldier CPT. Wisam Abdul Wahad, 24, Friday, July 22, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Gunmen fired on the car carrying the newlyweds who were married on Wednesday and their families, killing the bride while wounding her mother, groom and driver in the southern Dora neighborhood, of Baghdad according to police and medical officials.(AP Photo/Mohammed Uraibi)
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Distraught Iraqi soldier Cpt Wsam Abdul Wahab, 24, lies in a hospital bed wounded after his wedding party was attacked by unknown gunmen killing his wife Saly Salam, 22, and wounding two others, Friday, July 22, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Gunmen fired on the car carrying the newlyweds who were married on Wednesday and their families, killing Saly while wounding her mother, groom and driver in the southern Dora neighborhood, of Baghdad according to police and medical officials. At the time the images were made, Wahab did not know the fate of his wife.(AP Photo/Mohammed Uraibi)
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On A Wedding Anniversary
by Dylan Thomas
The sky is torn across
This ragged anniversary of two
Who moved for three years in tune
Down the long walks of their vows.
Now their love lies a loss
And Love and his patients roar on a chain;
From every tune or crater
Carrying cloud, Death strikes their house.
Too late in the wrong rain
They come together whom their love parted:
The windows pour into their heart
And the doors burn in their brain.
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This diary series is dedicated to all who suffer because of war
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
read this soldier’s blog
witness every day
Missed you yesterday, hope all is well.
Remember the wedding party our side airbombed?
(curls up and cries)
Things are fine. I was at a seminar all day yesterday and didn’t post until the evening.
I can’t imagine this new groom’s position. A groom and a widower, all in the same day.
You know that if something like this happened here, it would be in all of the papers and on the TV. I think I need to borrow some of your outrage for this one.
Here in America it would be HUGE news… What we end up with instead of actual factual news is “Runaway Brides” who have clumpy mascara…
(I worry when I don’t see your work)
from Raw Story
The sorrow on this US soldier’s face makes me grieve
for the terrible things he has seen,
sights that will never leave his mind,
sights that he will bring home,
I pray he does come home unharmed.
I hate the war but I do not hate those
who are involved in it through no direct
choice of their own.