this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war

four images and poem below the fold

Smoke rises from a Hizbollah stronghold in southern Beirut after being hit by Israeli warplanes, July 24, 2006.
(Adnan Hajj/Reuters)

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Palestinians wheel a wounded man to the treatment room at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, early Tuesday, July 25, 2006. Late Monday, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a four-story building in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, wounding four, Palestinian security and hospital officials said. The military said the building was used by Islamic Jihad to store weapons. Before the attack, the military called the owner, an Islamic Jihad activist, warning him to get his family out.
(AP Photo/Adel Hana)

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Family and Greek Orthodox priests gather around the open coffin of Haviv Awad during his funeral ceremony in the Israeli Arab village of Iblin in northern Israel, Monday, July 24, 2006. Awad, 46, a Christian Arab was one of two Israelis killed on Sunday when a rocket fired by Hezbollah guerrillas from Lebanon hit the city of Haifa.
(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, second from right, meets with a group of Lebanese anti-Syrian politicians known as the March 14 Forces at the U.S. Embassy north of Beirut, Lebanon Monday, July 24, 2006. U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman, is at right. Rice made a visit to Lebanon on Monday to launch diplomatic efforts aimed at ending 13 days of combat as Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into the country in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

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from Requiem in D minor, K.626
by Wolfgang Amade Mozart

Sequentia

Confutatis

Confutatis maledictis                   When the damned have been confounded
Flammis acribus addictis,               And given over to the bitter flames,
Voca me cum benedictis.                 Call me with the blessed.

Oro supplex et acclinis,                I pray in supplication on my knees.
Cor contritum quasi cinis,              My heart contrite as ashes,
Gere curam mei finis.                   Take thou mine end into thy care.

Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa dies illa                     Lamentable is that day on which
Qua resurget ex favilla                 guilty man shall arise from the ashes
Judicandus homo reus.                   to be judged.

Huic ergo parce, Deus,                  Spare then this one, O God.
Pie Jesu Domine,                        Merciful Lord Jesus,
Dona eis requiem. Amen.                 Grant them peace. Amen.

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The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It’s been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can’t bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can’t bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can’t bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can’t bring myself to care because it’s difficult to see beyond the horrors.

from Riverbend’s blog, Baghdad Burning, July 11, 2006

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