image: A police officer inspects the scene of a killing in the southern city of Basra, 500 kms from Baghdad.(AFP/Essam al-Sudani)
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
support the fallen
support the troops
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 blog – `Bagdhad Burning’
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
witness every day
image and poem below the fold
PTSD
by Richard M. Berlin
For months she has dreamed in red,
screaming when she sees
blood on the floor, blood
dripping from gloves.
Silent and numb at work,
her hands shake when she hangs
a unit. Day after day
she startles past the room, flashes
on his last whisper:
I’m so scared.
She turns toward his words.
Blood flows from his mouth,
soaks his gown a deep red-brown.
She Code Blues a prayer,
stands aside as the team arrives
in ones and twos, breathless,
mouth blood pulsing.
Starched and spotless
compressed in the doorjamb,
she is untouched
by the blood on their gloves,
the blood in the lines,
the blood spattered on white Nikes,
floor slick with cells and plasma.
Eyes locked on the flat-lined monitor,
she hears the last blood gurgle,
the team quiet and calm in a lake of blood.
And after they raise him on the cart,
she fills out the forms,
watches a woman mop,
hears soles stick to the floor,
the splash of pink water on steel.
caption, continued: A former member of the Baath party and now a local councilor for the Swafa neighborhood of the city, Kadhem Abed Shalash was shot dead by three unknown assailants according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Your selection for today reminds me of a post last night by tiggers thotful spot on Tim O’Brien, a vietnam vet who recounts his experience.
There are more horrors to war than the obvious, and we carry them with us forever. Thank you for doing this.
Tim O’Brien cuts to the core. I’ve got an anthology of Vietnam oral histories that includes accounts from people on both sides – on all sides, really – and of course he’s in it.
He says that he’s both humbled and frightened when high school students (he either teaches or speaks a lot) tell him that his is the only book (The Things They Carried) they’ve ever read.
Not just the only book about Vietnam, but the only book.
Well, I guess if there’s only one book, that’s a good one, right?
I also want to tell you about a response I made to a comment at one of these diaries over at dKos – you can see it here
Jerry = RubDMC
If it’s only one book, definitely a good choice indeed.
I just came back from the link, and read your response to Leslie. I think that you are right to keep perspective, but don’t be embarrassed if you do feel overwhelmed.
I think that for some people, the witnessing or observing can be just as painful. And sometimes it’s the powerlessness to stop the cause that leads to many feelings of despair.
When I think about these issues, Iris Chang comes to mind, who wrote about the atrocities carried out by the Japanese during the war (The Rape of Nanking). She commited suicide, which was linked to her suffering severe depression. At the time she was researching another book of similar nature.
And further to what Leslie said, many of us experience fatigue from the relentlessness of it. It’s best to step back at that point and take a break so that you can come back strong in spirit and mind to continue fighting. There have been nights where I am sitting in front of my computer crying and crying, and I know this is not healthy. It’s so easy to say the words; it’s the actions that make it harder!
It also helps to know that there are others who are so affected, because if we lived in a world were these things could be easily brushed off, then it would be a pretty dark place.
Echoing others here, I may not comment on a diary, but I definitely click through and appreciate your work in putting it together. I’ve clicked on your diaries even before I was registered here, so I’m glad that I can finally give you a bit of thanks.
Thanks rub. Thank you so much.
Thanks for posting this series. You don’t always get many comments but I’m sure many others like myself read and appreciate the work you put in.
Thanks!!
leaves me speechless…so my goal is to at least remember to click the “recommend” button.
Thank you for the reminder of the unnamed casualties that the MSM briefly refers to inbetween the Michael Jacksons and Runaway Brides of the day…