“Speak out for those who cannot speak,
for the rights of all the destitute.”
Proverbs 31:8
this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
we honor courage in all its forms
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
april is national poetry month
in remembrance today for a colleague’s patient (age 53)
image and poem below the fold
An Iraqi boy looks at a blood-stained road after a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad March 20, 2006. Four residents were killed during the attack targeting a convoy of security forces, police said. REUTERS/Ali Jasim
#4
by Jane Miller
Do you know how long it has been since a moral choice presented itself
and the wrong choice was made
not two minutes
why is it not quiet between lightning and thunder as if someone were asking
do you have other articulable feelings if so express them now
tragedy ensues
with a laser blast from the cockpit
the dangled finger of God makes contact
PLEASE CALL FOR SEVERAL THOUSAND PHYSICIANS QUICKLY
– – –
put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet
read Ilona’s important new blog – PTSD Combat
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
Thank you for making Iraq War Grief Daily Witness a Koufax Award Finalist for Best Series in 2005.
for the world and the souls of those lost and those suffering.
Nearly 20 Iraqis Die in Baghdad Attacks
Peace
For all that have senselessly lost their lives for this illegal occupation, I am sorry I couldn’t do more to stop this regime.
PEACE
IMPEACH
that Saddam was horrible but that life was better for Iraqi women with him in power than it’s been for women with this war. She said, “With Saddam, we didn’t have to worry about being killed or raped while on our way to the store”.
Only a total fuck up like Bush could make things WORSE for the Iraqi people he was supposedly “liberating”.
Tonight we’re rallying against this war in Portland with VFP, PPRC and the No War Drums. Me and my family.
Peace
to whomever we consider our enemies.
like a candle flame
peace flickers
in the wind
but will never
be blown out
while human hearts
still beat
this bloodshed was brought to the world by a man who was amazed just a few short years ago while “touring” a local grocery store that – you could purchase bread PRE-SLICED.
He was utterly amazed by that and… bar code scanners.
Disconnect.
Umm…I may be wrong Janet but wasn’t that BushI?
Do they just tear it off in chunks like wild beasts, or is it that their staff always bakes bread for them and slices it in the kitchen?
How is it that this man would never have seen sliced bread? There are people who arrived a week ago from a tiny village in Somalia who know about sliced bread.
I suspect this statement of Mr. Danger may have been medication-related.
Bush probably figured some woman in the kitchen was thrilled to slice his bread… he probably thinks it comes pre-buttered now.
I prefer bread you tear 🙂 Organic bread that I pick up -piping hot.
but they are not loaves. I like naan, injera, paratha, tortillas, roti, so only if I am having toast or a sandwich do I use the American sponge bread.
But I agree the European and Cuban breads are best torn, and adorned with butter and spiced oils.
Nevertheless, I cannot get the picture out of my mind of the Danger family clawing at a bag of unsliced Wonder, growling at each other for the ends…
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For The Children – Innocence Lost!
“Political correctness is really a subjective list put together by the few to rule the many — a list of things one must think, say, or do. It affronts the right of the individual to establish his or her own beliefs.” Mark Berley – Source: Argos, Spring 1998
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Didn’t This Call for Withdrawal From Iraq Merit Attention?
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” In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” – Mark Twain
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Walter Cronkite | Documentary Sends Warning to Congress
Walter Cronkite writes: Not unlike the Vietnam quagmire on which I reported in 1968, we are today presented with the Iraq quagmire. The threat of world communism has been replaced by international terror as a pretext for another misbegotten and mismanaged war, but the falsehoods, broken promises and withering national faith are too familiar.
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“The fact is that every war suffers a kind of progressive degradation with every month that it continues, because such things as individual liberty and a truthful press are simply not compatible with military efficiency. . . . ” George Orwell – Homage to Catalonia
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Prominent Former Insider Breaking the Silence
Andrew Natsios has taken a lot of flak over his role in Iraq. In the ensuing three years, Natsios, a lifelong Republican, has played the loyal soldier for the administration, regularly defending the US reconstruction effort in Iraq. For the first time, Natsios publicly gave vent to his long-suppressed frustrations over the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq occupation. In an interview with Newsweek he harshly criticized the administration.
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“All forms of tampering with human beings, getting at them, shaping them against their will to your own pattern, all thought control and conditioning is, therefore, a denial of that in men which makes them men and their values ultimate.” : Isaiah Berlin – (1909-1997) – Source: Two Concepts of Liberty, 1958
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Bush’s Requests for Iraqi Base Funding Raises Skepticism
Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of American troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request hundreds of millions of dollars for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent sites for US forces.
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People have not been horrified by war to a sufficient extent … War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today: John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Every American Should Be Required To Watch This Video The Road To Guantánamo How three young men from the UK, ended up in the world’s most notorious prison. This movie shows the sadism and stupidity of the US and British soldiers. The guards behave with the same cruelty you expect to see from SS officers in lurid second world war movies. It takes a moment or two to realize that these events reflect the reality of those held in Americas notorious gulag.
Click here to view: HERE
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The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service: Albert Einstein
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It’s Criminal
By Scott Ritter
The rallying cry of the Democratic Party must become impeachment. Given the magnitude of the crimes committed by the United States in Iraq under the direction and leadership of President Bush and his administration, there is simply no other recourse that can bring a halt to the madness in Iraq, and the insanity being planned in Iran and elsewhere.
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When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.” : Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”: Frederick Douglass
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“Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another.”
Purple Heart recipient forced to repay signing bonus (Updated)
“Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another.”