this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
Norma Mendez, the mother of U.S. Army soldier Antonio Mendez, who was killed recently in Iraq, embraces an American flag which was ceremonially folded and given to her, at her son’s burial, in Rincon, western Puerto Rico, Friday, Dec. 2, 2005. Antonio Mendez, age 22, was killed in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Nov. 11, according to Army authorities.
(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Iraqi women grieve during a funeral ceremony of Sheik Norzad Taher, a prominent member of the Guidance and Islamic Call group, in the northern city of Kirkuk December 2, 2005. Iraqi soldiers discovered on Thursday the body of a Kurdish cleric four days after he was kidnapped in the northern city, police said.
REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed
The Hand That Signed The Paper
by Dylan Thomas
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The finger joints are cramped with chalk;
A goose’s quill has put an end to murder
That put an end to talk.
The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.
The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor pat the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.
– – –
read Ilona’s important diary at MLW – Returning Vet PTSD – One Soldier’s Story
view the pbs newshour silent honor roll (with thanks to jimstaro at booman.)
take a private moment to light one candle among many (with thanks to TXSharon)
support Veterans for Peace
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
support Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors – TAPS
support Gold Star Families for Peace
support the fallen
support the troops
support Iraq Veterans Against the War
support Military families Speak Out
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
witness every day
Click on the candle to copy the image into your own comment (you can leave it on my server), and/or rate this one – not for mojo, but to leave a small mark after taking this moment.
” I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.”
from Dirge Without Music
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Why are we so eager to feed this appetite for ceremony and glorification of death in service.
What is honorable about sacrificing a life for a lie?
There is honor in refusal to be complicit.
Iraqi soldiers killed in ambush
Support the Troops…Bring them home now.
No more lies. No more lives.
And who shall we ask to be the last to die? I am sure there will be many more needless deaths until then.
To The Warmongers
I’m back again from Hell
With loathsome thoughts to sell;
Secrets of death to tell;
And horrors from the abyss.
Young faces bleared with blood,
Sucked down into the mud,
You shall hear things like this,
Till the tormented slain
Crawl round and once again,
With limbs that twist awry
Moan out their brutish pain,
As the fighters pass them by.
For you our battles shine
With triumph half-divine;
And the glory of the dead
Kindles in each proud eye.
But a curse is on my head,
That shall not be unsaid,
And the wounds in my heart are red,
For I have watched them die.
1917 poem by Briton Siegfried Sassoon, who fought in WWI.
Peace
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For Innocence Lost!
Bomb kills 11 Iraqis day after U.S. deaths
Dec 3, 9:34 AM EST
By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
PEACE TAKES COURAGE
Music Video:It’s HARD
BlastedReality
Music Video:CRIMELINE
A Music Video – ‘Real Patriots’ Taking ACTION
Peace Takes Courage:
The Video: HOLD ON
And HOPE For The Future – If There Is One!
Random Kids
Mission–To empower kids to realize the infinite value of who they are right now and their unique power to make the world a better place because of it.
PEACE!!!!!!!
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For Innocence Lost!
{There were two links for Video of this Tragedy at site, if you click on pic, but I was getting an error page for both!}
Bush Did Not Mention Attacks in Rose Garden Appearance
TomSongs – Tom Chelson
From a Veteran (Infantry Hospital Corpsman, USMC/USN) and a songwriter opposed to Bush’s war. He wrote “BushWhacked” in support and has received an incredible response from Soldiers, Families and a few angry co-conspirators. Feel free add this to your site in our mutual mission.
High res. 9.3 MB
Low res. 4 MB
Song only 3.4 MB
PEACE TAKES COURAGE
Music Video:It’s HARD
No more lies; no more lives. Perfect.
.
A prayer for each and every victim in the Iraq War as a candle is lit in memory ::
LEAVE … Iraq to the Iraqis
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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