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


The body of Abu Akeel, a Sunni Arab, lies in a Baghdad morgue in this undated photo. His relatives, who provided the photograph, said he was kidnapped, tortured and killed by Shi’ite militiamen linked to the government. As U.S. and Iraqi officials speak of how Iraqi forces have improved after training, Sunnis are focused on what they say are widespread abuses at the hands of Shi’ite government forces. The U.S.-backed Iraqi government, which promised to deliver human rights after decades of iron-fisted rule under Saddam Hussein, has denied the accusations. The government says it investigates any reports of abuses in its war against guerrillas, who have killed thousands of security forces and civilians with suicide bombings and shootings.
REUTERS/Handout

from A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
by Bob Dylan

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’,
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’,
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

– – –
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