Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 329

12 Comments

1. 

   RubDMC on June 3, 2006 at 3:57 pm

   

   The candle that DianeL first lit many months ago, and which has become such an important part of these diaries since, is still available here.

   You can copy that image into your own comment (you can leave it on my server), craft your own image, and/or rate this one – not for mojo, but to leave a small mark after taking this moment – as a sign that you know, but do not approve, and are not resigned.

   “It is like trying to ignite – to pass on the responsibilities as much as possible to everyone else.”
   Ravi Shankar

   • 

     dada on June 3, 2006 at 4:05 pm

     

2. 

   jimstaro on June 3, 2006 at 4:13 pm

   
   Light A Candle For
   Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
   and For The Children – Innocence Lost!

   Ava – At ‘Peace Takes Courage’ Has 3 New Flash Video’s Up

   5/29/2006
   Memorial Day is here yet again
   (Ava notation – I created this animation last year so the numbers are off.)

   5/29/2006
   New Animation
   We Will Never Forget

   5/30/2006
   New Animation
   YearlyKos Promo

   FOCUS: Larry Johnson | Earplugs, Marines, and Haditha

   Larry Johnson travels in Iraq, where he meets with soldiers who are heading to Haditha and offers that “We must also accept that Americans as a whole share some responsibility for the actions of these soldiers. We sent them to war. We put them square in the middle of the battle. We cannot simply sit idly on the sidelines clucking our tongues over the awful thing that was done.”

   FOCUS | US Commanders Knew Haditha Deaths From Gunfire

   Marine commanders in Iraq knew within two days of the killings in Haditha in November that gunfire, not a roadside bomb, had killed Iraqi civilians but they saw no reason to investigate further, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

   • 

     jimstaro on June 3, 2006 at 4:20 pm

     Sharing a NewsLetter

     

     September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows Quarterly Newsletter – Volume 10 Spring 2006
     Dear Friends,
     As the fifth anniversary of September 11th draws closer, Peaceful Tomorrows continues to call attention to the human cost of terrorism, violence and war. Learn more about our major organizing event to establish a cooperative global network for peace, planned for the week leading up to September 11th, 2006. Also, read about our participation in the powerful Eyes Wide Open display on the National Mall in Washington, DC in May. Peaceful Tomorrows members continue to travel the world spreading our message that the cycle of violence can and must be broken–read reports from recent travels to Italy and Japan.
     Thank you–
     David and Nabil
     The staff of Peaceful Tomorrows
     Establishing a Cooperative Global Network for Peace
     Peaceful Tomorrows will bring together at least 30 members of organizations comprised of those who have lost family members in armed conflicts from at least 20 countries. The event would build upon initial planning carried out with eighteen international advisors who met in Bologna, Italy in September 2005. Our organizing event will begin on September 5, 2006 with a three-day private gathering at the Garrison Insitute, north of New York City. It will continue with public sessions in New York City on September 8-11, including a celebratory event at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and panels at other locations around the city. Read More
     Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living
     In March, 2005 Eyes Wide Open (EWO), a project of the American Friends Service Committee, was travelling to San Francisco. The exhibit consisted of 1,525 boots tagged with the name, age, rank and home state of every soldier killed in the Iraq war. At the same time, the toll incurred by Iraqi civilians was represented by a relatively small number of unmarked shoes. Peaceful Tomorrows decided to join with the AFSC in increasing the size of the civilian shoe display in an effort to more accurately represent the true human cost of the war for the people of Iraq. Read More
     Please support Peaceful Tomorrows!
     Peaceful Tomorrows is a project of the Tides Center, a 501c3 non-profit organization. We receive no money from 9/11 disbursements or charities, and depend entirely on individual and foundation grants to continue our work. Please support Peaceful Tomorrows with a one time or recurring tax-deductible contribution.
     If you’d like, you can buy a copy of our new DVD, Beyond Retribution, taped in Oklahoma City on the 10th anniversary of the Murrah Federal Building bombing. You can view streaming video and order here. Thank you for your support, and please spread the word about our organization!
     —September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

     In This Issue:
     

     1. Peaceful Tomorrows in Washington, DC: Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living

     Gallery 1
                                                          Gallery 2
                                                          Gallery 3
                                                          Gallery 4
                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     
     2. PT member John Titus goes to Italy to Meet with Peacemakers and Students
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     
     3. PT member Talat Hamdani goes to Japan to Address the New Japan’s Women’s Association (Shinfujin)
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     
     4. Join Peaceful Tomorrows in Signing the Declaration of Peace

   • 

     jimstaro on June 3, 2006 at 5:35 pm

     Empty Boots and Baby Shoes

        By Stacy Bannerman
        t r u t h o u t | Perspective

        Saturday 03 June 2006

     In the wake of the rising tide of allegations claiming that US forces executed a sort of vigilante justice by staging murderous attacks on Iraqi civilians, General Chiarelli, second in command in Iraq, stated his belief that it’s important for troops to “take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies.” The Marines who were reportedly involved in the Haditha rampage were on their third deployment. Some soldiers are on their sixth tour of duty. Many have spent more time in Iraq than they have at home in the past few years, scooping up body parts of friends and “friendlies.” When, precisely, does the General think our soldiers will have a little down time to reflect?

        More importantly, why haven’t our elected leaders taken the time to reflect, discuss, and decide on a clear exit strategy that would prevent more empty boots and baby shoes from being added to the growing pile of casualties in Iraq every day?

        It has been more than a month since leaders of the US House of Representatives declared that they would convene a “full and lengthy” debate on the war. Theoretically, that debate would address questions pertaining to the legality of a confrontation that was initiated on false information and in violation of virtually all modern conventions and standards of warfare.

        Presumably, that conversation would explore the morality of a conflict that has become a civil war in which 90% of the casualties are unarmed civilians, and the short- and long-term impacts of multiple deployments on troops already stretched to the breaking point.

        One might suppose the discussion would address what the “noble cause” is, and whether or not it is within the purview of the United States Armed Forces to build a democracy (which is not what Congress or the American public were told they were paying for). One might also surmise that a dialogue would take place about whether that might be something better left to a regional, if not international, coalition of statesmen and diplomats. It may be difficult to appeal to the United Nations for assistance, but, as the wife of a National Guardsman who has already served a year in Iraq, I assure you, it would be no trickier than having your loved one sent off to fight in a war based on lies.

        Which begs the question: If you support the troops, can you name one? If not, why aren’t you signing up to become one? With an increasing number of Americans opposed to the war in Iraq, why aren’t we doing anything about it? Why aren’t our Representatives? It smacks of hypocrisy to ask our soldiers to do what we, from the comfort of our couches or the halls of Congress, won’t. Namely, to align our morals with our actions.

        If Congress waits until November to act, it is likely that 350 or more US soldiers will die, along with countless Iraqi children, women, and men. Since March 2003, on average, over two service men and women and nearly 20 Iraqi citizens have been killed in each day of the war.

        Perhaps when what’s left of the troops on the ground in Iraq are done with their values training, they can all come home and teach us. Until then, I suspect that the poem I wrote while participating in the Bring Them Home Now Tour (September, 2005) as a member of Military Families Speak Out, will continue to be relevant:

     EMPTY BOOTS AND BABY SHOES

     I am so tired of standing at memorials for soldiers; tired of weeping for the victims of this war.

     I am tired of watching parents plant crosses for their dead children, day after day after godforsaken day.

     I am tired of placing flowers in empty boots and baby shoes; of the way my body shakes at the first readings of the names that were added to the casualty count this week.

     What’s wearing me out is bearing witness to this war. This foreverness of death, and the unrelenting loss.

     It drains my spirit to meet the widow’s eyes; to watch the fathers falter, falling to their knees. Christ, that makes me weak.

     To stand at the lip of the mouth of a grave that will never get enough

     catching mothers tears, a nation driving by the dead, is exhausting to my soul.

     I am deathly tired today.
        ——–

        Stacy Bannerman is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus and is on the Advisory Board of Military Families Speak Out. She is the author of When the War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind, (Continuum Publishing, March 2006). Her husband deployed to Iraq with the Army National Guard 81st Brigade in March 2004, and returned home on March 11, 2005.

3. 

   ask on June 3, 2006 at 4:25 pm

   
   Iraqis reject US Ishaqi findings

4. 

   supersoling on June 3, 2006 at 4:50 pm

   

5. 

   olivia on June 3, 2006 at 4:55 pm

   It is sad
     To see the light of beauty wane away,
       Know eyes are dimming, bosoms shrivelling, feet
         Losing their springs, and limbs their lily roundness;
           But it is worse to feel the heart-spring gone,
             To lose hope, care not for the coming thing,
               And feel all things go to decay within us.
                ~Philip James Bailey

   peace

   • 

     BrendaStewart on June 3, 2006 at 6:46 pm

     Olivia, thank you for coming to this lilipad with your flowers to accompany the candles lit for the parrished or injured or just because we want peace instead of war.  YOu sure have made a great addition to us all the way around…hugs

     • 

       olivia on June 3, 2006 at 6:55 pm

       Thank you … {{{Brenda}}}

6. 

   shermanesqe on June 3, 2006 at 6:38 pm

   

7. 

   BrendaStewart on June 3, 2006 at 8:10 pm

   I hope I can paraphrase this correctly.  I read someplace today a statement that said…what we have now is a president (bush) who admolished a president (SH) of a country (Iraq) for kiling its citizens and now we have a president of that country (Iraq) damning this president (bush) for killing their citizens, of Iraq.  How the world turns on its axis to say that which goes around, comes around.

   This is totally unbelivable.