image: a bus burns following a car bomb explosion in Iraq
one way to support the Iraqi people
Support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
many other ways to support the troops and the Iraqi people
one way to support victims of torture
one way to support the troops
one way to witness every day
one way to support the fallen
image and words below the fold
from Little Gidding
by T.S. Eliot
Ash on an old man’s sleeve
Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.
Dust in the air suspended
Marks the place where a story ended.
Dust inbreathed was a house-
The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,
The death of hope and despair,
This is the death of air.
There are flood and drouth
Over the eyes and in the mouth,
Dead water and dead sand
Contending for the upper hand.
The parched eviscerate soil
Gapes at the vanity of toil,
Laughs without mirth.
This is the death of earth.
Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire.
I wonder if it was a school bus, but from what I can “gather” from our “news”, there doesn’t seem to be any schools open for the Liberated children of Iraq.
I wonder if they were all anti-US fighters or
if civilians were killed too. Can’t get any
confirmation because even al Jazeera is getting
their news feed from US military.
It’s not: “can’t get any confirmation”…
it’s: “won’t get any information”…propaganda ?…maybe, nah, probable.
Freedom on the march <snark>
And here’s more
The rate of birth defects, after increasing ten-fold from 11 per 100,000 births in 1989 to 116 per 100,000 in 2001, is soaring further. Dr Nawar Ali, a medical researcher into birth deformities at Baghdad University, told the UN’s Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) last month: “There have been 650 cases in total since August 2003 reported in government hospitals. That is a 20 percent increase from the previous regime. Private hospitals were not included in the study, so the number could be higher.”
His colleague, Dr Ibrahim al-Jabouri, reported: “In my experiments we have found some cases where the mother and father were suffering from pollution from weapons used in the south and we believe that it is affecting newborn babies in the country.”
The director of the Central Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Wathiq Ibrahim, said: “We have asked for help from the government to make a more profound study on such cases as it is affecting thousands of families.” The rise in birth defects is matched by a continuing increase in the incidence of childhood cancers….link
exquisite poem too. Thanks, RubDMC.
P.S. I recently watched an indy film about T.S. and his wife. Good.