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
Iraqi children watch a U.S. patrol passing by in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad December 11, 2005. With less than a week until Iraq’s parliamentary election, competing political blocs are blaring out promises that strike a chord with voters desperate for a better life after years of war and hardship. After nearly three years of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations that have resulted in the deaths of thousands since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein, it is no surprise that many politicians have cited security as their top priority.
REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh
Notes from the Other Side
by Jane Kenyon
I divested myself of despair
and fear when I came here.
Now there is no more catching
one’s own eye in the mirror,
there are no bad books, no plastic,
no insurance premiums, and of course
no illness. Contrition
does not exist, nor gnashing
of teeth. No one howls as the first
clod of earth hits the casket.
The poor we no longer have with us.
Our calm hearts strike only the hour,
and God, as promised, proves
to be mercy clothed in light.
– – –
read Ilona’s important diary at MLW – Returning Vet PTSD – One Soldier’s Story as well the first in what she promises will be a comprehensive series on PTSD and Iraq War vets.
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
for dying Vietnam veteran Mitch and all others whose lives are devastated by war.
.
is just a goddam bundle pieces of paper.
“I can’t explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen, and, at that time, my country is going to need me. I know it won’t be easy, on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.”
“I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.”
Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2001
Result was the reformers were aligned with pro-Bush appeasement and the hardliners took most seats in parliament.
There has been another holy man reinstated in a ME country!
Then the president turns to his recent UN address.
“On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say ‘Bismillah Muhammad’, he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura,” he says. “I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn’t move an eyelid, I’m not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!”
Latest Outrage – thanks George!
IT’S TIME TO CLEAN-UP CONGRESS IN 2006!
LEAVE Iraq to the Iraqis
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Peace
I’ve so missed you DJ.
Finding you here has put a smile on my face.
See? :o)
Let there be peace on Earth,
And let it start with me.
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Four U.S. Army soldiers died in a roadside bombing, gunmen killed a Sunni Arab candidate for parliament, and militants tried to blow up a leading Shiite politician in separate attacks Tuesday, the last day of campaigning for Iraq’s election.
from March, 2003:
Tomorrow my DFA group and our MoveOn partners will revisit Rep. Mark Udall’s office to submit over 2000 signatures from his district and call for him to support a swift withdrawal from our occupation of Iraq. Mark will probably listen.
This is how we do it, vote by vote, across the USA. Please join us.
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For Innocence Lost!
But We’re Not Counting
The president finally addressed the issue of dead Iraqis. We check his facts.
Reduced to double talk in defending torture policy
By HELEN THOMAS
How long will the American people tolerate the shaming of their nation by the
inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and the spiriting of detainees to secret
prisons outside the United States?
When Allies Become Accomplices to Terror
By Christian Bommarius, Senior Editor
Does a State become a rogue State because it uses roguish methods? Or does it
use roguish methods because it is a rogue state? – ” It makes no difference if a
State tortures (or outsources torture) in the name of human rights, in the name
of a religion or in the name of a dictator. For it then tortures not as a
society based on the rule of law but as its antithesis.
There is a Statement by whittle condi that Just Stands Out:
“We cannot discuss information that would compromise the success of intelligence”
Does everyone Remember these almost Exact Words, repeated Over and Over, by a number of Administration Personal, About Their ‘Proof’ Of WMD’s!!
As Stated to the Inspectors on the Ground, Over and Over, Who Weren’t Finding A Thing!!]
Or vow the sun may shine tomorrow.
Who’s to thank for why it beams?
Who now fills the moon with sorrow?
I cannot see beyond that day’s
sacrifice, our dreams dismay.
Lives we thought we’d never lose,
forever lost…in sky so blue.
The river of terror now overflows.
Jobes’ levy nearly breached.
God’s cold wind of change now blows.
What ancient lesson will He re-teach?
So ask me not of dreams and plans.
They matter not, somehow.
Along with peace, in other lands,
pray for an end, to all wars now.”
Peace Prayer by Richard Burley