this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
Elderly Iraqi women wait to retrieve the body of a relative in a van carrying a coffin on top following the latest Baghdad, Iraq car bombing Monday Sept. 26 2005. A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint guarding several government ministries as Iraqi employees arrived at work Monday morning, killing at least seven policemen and three workers, police said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
from The Lotos-Eaters
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
II
Why are we weigh’d upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness?
All things have rest: why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
Still from one sorrow to another thrown:
Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber’s holy balm;
Nor harken what the inner spirit sings,
“There is no joy but calm!”
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?
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support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
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 Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
Leonard Clark’s blog has been taken down
witness every day
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Safe Area Tal Afar :: Female Suicide Bomber Kills 6
Wed Sep 28th, 2005 at 02:53:24 AM PST
Iraq Arrest Warrant for 2 UK SAS Soldiers :: J’Accuse Iran of IED Bomb Terror
Sat Sep 24th, 2005 at 01:55:16 PM PST
TIMELINE :: Basra Police Station – Jail Break – MoD Lies ¶ IRAN Crusade
Wed Sep 21st, 2005 at 02:25:47 PM PST
Stand-off Basra :: Iraqi vs UK Forces – Riots After UK Soldiers Arrested ¶ Updated!
Mon Sep 19th, 2005 at 06:56:10 AM PST
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the camera with me at some places. I haven’t yet really written much about this – just thoughts to go along with some photos so I could share with you guys quickly. Other than that, I’m still in a bit of a daze.
I took this one with you in mind, RubDMC, (among so many other things) … while in DC one feels like they are floating along, drifting, being caried… (however I’m covered in blisters)
Today you have a picture of a coffin… so maybe it’s time to share this with you. I’m sure you have seen these elsewhere, but while these were being snapped, you were and your daily witnesses were “there”.
From Camp Casey DC
Tracy and I stood and listened to just one of many parents who are in debt because they had to bury a loved one. The military is NOT NOT NOT helping these families. Yes, there is a cost of war, we all know that, but military families should not ever go into debt because a loved one killed or disabled. This is so wrong. I looked at the crosses, the shoes, and the coffins and realized that not only do these represent death but also familes screwed over and put into debt and launced into political nightmares and… activism.
I was able to go there with my eyes wide open. Thank you, RubDMC.
Most were taking this photo from the other side of the camp. So that the coffins looked like flags.
I saw them another way.
I’m not sure most realize, but an upside down flag means something. It’s not a symbol of treason… it’s a call for help.
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Wikipedia
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In Contentious Times, the American Flag Is an Ever-Potent Symbol
The last time the nation was this divided over a war, there was a bitter fight, too, over the flag. Anti-war protesters saw the government appropriating the flag to promote its Vietnam policies, and so marched with it hung upside down — in a traditional sign of distress — or burned it in protest. Archie Bunker’s ubiquitous flag lapel pin became an iconic symbol of that time, and of the tug of war between the World War II generation and their baby boom offspring.
But these are different days, and the scars from Sept. 11 are still too fresh.
The flag draped over the gaping wound in the Pentagon hangs — in the condition in which it was taken down, with a slight charred stain — inside the entryway to the National Museum of American History. Glass, the director, watches people from all over the country walk in the door from the Mall. “People know immediately,” he says, that it’s the Pentagon flag.
That flag — along with flags taken out of the rubble of the World Trade Center — have assumed their rightful place alongside the garrison-size flag that flew over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry during the 1814 British bombardment, and that affectionately came to be known as the Star-Spangled Banner.
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By Sayed Salahuddin – 30 minutes ago –
KABUL (Reuters) — At least 12 people were killed and 29 wounded when a suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform rammed a motorcycle into a convoy of buses carrying Afghan army officers in the capital Kabul.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at the Kabul Military Training Center, set up by U.S.-led forces to train a new national army, and said more could be expected.
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers and Afghan police secure an area after a bomb blast in Kabul today. REUTERS/Omar SobhaniIt was the bloodiest of several suicide attacks in Kabul since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 and came just 10 days after landmark parliamentary elections, which passed off relatively peacefully despite militant threats.
An Afghan intelligence official said at least 12 people died, most of them army officers, but he did not know if this figure included the bomber. The officer, who did not want to be identified, said some of the wounded were in critical condition.
Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said earlier 10 people had been killed, including the bomber. Another ministry official said eight of the dead were soldiers and another a civilian.
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