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.
3 images and poem below the fold
A man pulls his shirt as he mourns the death of his relative killed by a suicide bomber who drove his pickup into a crowded petrol station in Samarra, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005. Twelve people were killed, Iraqi police said.
(AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed)
A man grieves near the dead body of his relative killed by a suicide bomber who drove his pickup into a crowded gasoline station in Samarra, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005. Twelve people were killed, Iraqi police said.
(AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed)
Iraqi children look at the burning wreckage of a car bomb that exploded near a two-car convoy carrying foreigners through central Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005, killing four Iraqi civilians. No one in the convoy was injured, but one of the armored cars was damaged and removed by U.S. forces. The foreigners were not immediately identified, but none of them were injured, Iraqi police said.
(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Under One Small Star
by Wislawa Szymborska
My apologies to chance for calling it necessity
My apologies to necessity if I’m mistaken, after all.
Please, don’t be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologise for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.
I apologise to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at
five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don’t rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,
you gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table’s four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don’t pay me much attention.
Dignity please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from
your train.
Soul, don’t take offense that I’ve only got you now and then.
My apologies to everyone that I can’t be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can’t be each woman and each man.
I know that I won’t be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don’t bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.
– – –
read Ilona’s important diary at MLW – Returning Vet PTSD – One Soldier’s Story
view the pbs newshour silent honor roll (with thanks to jimstaro at booman.)
take a private moment to light one candle among many (with thanks to TXSharon)
support Veterans for Peace
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
support Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors – TAPS
support Gold Star Families for Peace
support the fallen
support the troops
support Iraq Veterans Against the War
support Military families Speak Out
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
witness every day
Click on the candle to copy the image into your own comment (you can leave it on my server), and/or rate this one – not for mojo, but to leave a small mark after taking this moment.
” I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.”
from Dirge Without Music
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For Innocence Lost!
Unpatriotic Congresswoman Jean Schmidt Calls Vietnam Hero a Coward
Here at VetsForJustice we are fed up with the Bush Neocons, like the Anti-American Congresswoman from Ohio, Jean Schmidt, calling America’s War Heroes names.
Having served in combat in Vietnam myself, I was pissed during the Vietnam War when the cowardly rich, like President “W” Bush, Vice President Chaney, and most of the present Bush Administration, avoided the war by being rich and powerful.
Being a lifelong Republican I was pissed when yellow “W” Bush used Swift Boat Tactics to attack Vietnam War Hero, and former POW, Senator McCain for mere politics.
At the Republican convention when the whole Republican Party mocked the Purple Heart Medal, for mere politics, wearing Purple Heart Band-Aids as they laughed, and joked, about it I swore I would never vote for the Anti-American Bush Neocons again.
Congresswoman Jean Schmidt MOCKS our troops by not caring about their lives, their blood, their RIGHT to be told the truth, and by letting our troops know that once they return home from their service and become Veterans, scumbags like her will call them cowards if they dare exercise their right to voice a view different from hers, and the “Party Line”.
Any Veteran worth their salt needs to write their local newspapers and let them know that we are fed up with yellow, Anti-American, Bush Republicans betraying our troops, and mocking our Veterans.
The Honorable Vietnam Veteran you called a coward for politics Congresswoman Schmidt is a former Marine, and WAR HERO, that has a Bronze Star and Three Purple Hearts.
Where are YOUR medals Congresswoman Schmidt?
Before you attack America’s Military, and her heroes, you need to earn that right. We shall be sending you Marine Enlistment Papers so that you can “try” to become just half the patriot that War Hero Congressman John Murtha is.
I strongly suspect you will not even have the guts to sign them, let alone actually enlist, complete a Marine Basic, and serve in a combat zone.
We at VetsForJustice accuse you, Congresswoman Schmidt, and your neocon “Clique” of being the cowards. [Copy FAXED to Schmidt’s Office].
OUTRAGEMeter
“The truth is a noble cause”
The Seven Deadly Social Sins Poster
James Starowicz
USN ’67-’71
’67-’68: Meridian Mississippi/Naval Air Station
’68-’70: GMG3, Panama Canal Zone/Rodman Naval Base
’70-’71: GMG3, Coronado Calif – CounterInsurgency/S.E.R.E. School, Vietnam — In-Country COMNAVFORV
Member: Veterans For Peace
.
Great seismic change in Israeli politics in the past few weeks, everyone should read and be aware of the changes, as the chance for peace is on the increase IMHO. New Labor leader Peretz is moving the party to social issues: public health, schooling and public transport. Living below the poverty line is 25% of the population and one third of all children.
Soup kitchens and unemployment is weighing heavy on Israeli society, as a third of the government budget is spend on the military and for security. The traditional Labor party has seen its leadership from the wealthy elite from white Europeans. Peretz is seen as a man of the people, coming from a community with a majority of Russian and North African immigrants.
As seen below, Vice-Premier Shimon Peres is showing his true colors and may join Sharon’s Kadima party.
TEL AVIV (Angus Reid Global Scan) Nov. 26 — The Kadima party formed earlier this month by Ariel Sharon would head the government after Israel’s next legislative election, according to three recent voting intention polls. The results of a survey by Teleseker published in Maariv suggest that Kadima would secure 34 seats in the Israeli Parliament, followed by the Labour party with 26, and the Likud party with 13.
A poll by the Dahaf Institute published in Yediot Ahronot gives Kadima 33 seats in the Knesset, with Labour in second place with 26, and Likud in third place with 13.
A survey by Smith Researching and Consulting published in the Jerusalem Post puts Kadima ahead with 32 seats.
Polling Report – 2006 Knesset Election
Vice Premier Shimon Peres meanwhile confirmed reports that he was approached by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new party, and said that he would decide whether to join Kadima in the coming days. Peres told Israel Radio:
“The only thing before my eyes is the country’s interest, and chances to bring about peace. There are no personal considerations in my decision.”
Shimon Peres: Vance Lecturer
≈Cross-posted from my diary ::
Breaking Sharon WB Pull-out 2008 ¶ Secret EU Report & Rafah Border Open ≈
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Peace for everyone.
Two Suicide Car Bombings Kill 10 in Iraq
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For Innocence Lost!
FOCUS | Paul Rockwell:
How Do We Honor Our Fallen Troops in a Wrongful War?
Paul Rockwell reviews ‘gold star peace mom’ Cindy Sheehan’s first book, Not One More Mothers Child, finding it an exposition of wartime propaganda and concluding there is no greater act of betrayal than to send young men and women to their deaths on the basis of fraud.
I, May I Rest In Peace
I, may I rest in peace–I, who am still living, say,
May I have peace in the rest of my life.
I want peace right now while I’m still alive.
I don’t want to wait like that pious man who wished for one leg
of the golden chair of Paradise, I want a four-legged chair
right here, a plain wooden chair. I want the rest of my peace now.
I have lived out my life in wars of every kind: battles without
and within, close combat, face-to-face, the faces always
my own, my lover-face, my enemy-face.
Wars with the old weapons–sticks and stones, blunt axe, words,
dull ripping knife, love and hate,
and wars with newfangled weapons–machine gun, missile,
words, land mines exploding, love and hate.
I don’t want to fulfill my parents’ prophecy that life is war.
I want peace with all my body and all my soul.
Rest me in peace.
by Yehuda Amichai
(Translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld).
I am a witness.