Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 201

16 Comments

1. 

   RubDMC on December 16, 2005 at 10:56 am

   

   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

   

2. 

   Oui on December 16, 2005 at 11:32 am

   .
   Legislation will be rewritten in Army Field Manual —

   Is a First Step but Must Apply to Everyone
   More on Ending Torture …

   

   NEW YORK – Human Rights First welcomes the U.S. Army’s plans to revise its interrogation manual as a first step toward preventing abuse of prisoners. Michael Posner, Executive Director of Human Rights First said:

   “The proposed new manual is an important acknowledgement of the scope of the severity of the torture problem. However, we are concerned the new rules do not go far enough to solve this problem, or to change Administration policy.”

   The New York Times reported today that the new manual lays out explicit prohibited techniques and clarifies the prohibition against torture. But the current army field manual already offers numerous methods that are impermissible and makes absolutely clear that neither physical torture, nor mental torture, nor coercion may be used.

     «« click on pic to enlarge (633k)

   The new manual also applies only to the army. It provides no new guidance to CIA interrogators. In August of 2002, the Administration reportedly gave the CIA authority to use illegal techniques including “waterboarding,” denial of pain medication and mock burial.

   Dec. 14 – The New York Times continued …

   IT’S TIME TO CLEAN-UP CONGRESS IN 2006!  

     «« click on pic to enlarge

   LEAVE Iraq to the Iraqis

   “Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
   For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

   ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

   • 

     Oui on December 16, 2005 at 12:32 pm

     .
     See Rep. Murtha’s link above: LEAVE Iraq to the Iraqis.

     Counter Attack

     As the debris continues to settle from the explosion detonated by Rep. John Murtha’s, D-Pa., continued rapid fire defeatist comments this past week, I wonder how he expected his statements to be perceived. As an infantryman whose boots are still caked with blood and dust from Iraq, I am beyond confused with the Democratic Party’s “Prada Pant Suit Posse” of Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Louise Slaughter’s insistence that he preserve his title as a combat visionary.

     By David Bellavia
A former U.S. Army staff sergeant who served in the 1st Infantry Division. He has been recommended for the Medal of Honor by his leadership, and the Distinguished Service Cross. He has received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Cross.

     “Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
     For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

     ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

3. 

   shermanesqe on December 16, 2005 at 11:43 am

   

4. 

   ask on December 16, 2005 at 12:05 pm

   
   Official: Iraq Freed al-Zarqawi Last Year

5. 

   dada on December 16, 2005 at 12:11 pm

   

   Peace

6. 

   olivia on December 16, 2005 at 12:12 pm

   

   Today’s poem is very poignant…

   When there are so many we shall have to mourn,
   when grief has been made so public, and exposed
        to the critique of a whole epoch
      the frailty of our conscience and anguish,

   of whom shall we speak? For every day they die
   among us, those who were doing us some good,
        who knew it was never enough but
      hoped to improve a little by living.

7. 

   alohaleezy on December 16, 2005 at 12:19 pm

   We shall overcome. Peace to all that have lost a loved one to this illegal occupation based on lies.

   No more lies.
   No more lives.

8. 

   ubikkibu on December 16, 2005 at 12:20 pm

   

   Peace.

9. 

   supersoling on December 16, 2005 at 12:33 pm

   

10. 

    DuctapeFatwa on December 16, 2005 at 2:31 pm

    Over a year ago, an international team of epidemiologists headed by Les Roberts of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health completed a “cluster sample survey” of civilian casualties in Iraq. Its findings contradicted central elements of the narrative of the war that politicians and journalists had presented to the American public and the world.

    After excluding the results from Anbar province as a statistical anomaly and half the increase in infant mortality as possible “recall bias,” they estimated that at least 98,000 Iraqi civilians had died in the previous 18 months as a direct result of the invasion and occupation of their country. They also found that violence had become the leading cause of death in Iraq during that period (51 percent or 24 percent with or without Anbar). However, their most significant finding was that the vast majority (79 percent) of violent deaths were caused by “coalition” forces using “helicopter gunships, rockets or other forms of aerial weaponry,” and that almost half (48 percent) of these were children, with a median age of eight….

    Thanks to Les Roberts, his international team, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the editorial board of the Lancet, we have a clearer and very different picture of the violence taking place in Iraq than that presented by the “mainstream” media. Allowing for an additional 14 months of the air war and other violence since the publication of the Lancet report, we can now estimate that somewhere between 175,000 and 650,000 people have died as a direct result of the war; that 120,000 to 500,000 of them have been killed by “coalition” forces, and that 50,000 to 250,000 of these were children below the age of fifteen. In addition, the combined effect of conservative, even unrealistic, assumptions made to arrive at the lower of these figures makes it extremely unlikely that the actual numbers of deaths are close to the bottom of these ranges….

    nerdified link

    bold mine

11. 

    jimstaro on December 16, 2005 at 5:20 pm

    
    Light A Candle For
    Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
    and For Innocence Lost!

    Victory Is…Negotiable
    by Gareth Porter, TomPaine.com
         At long last, American officials are preparing to negotiate with the Sunni resistance in Iraq.

    In The Kingdom Of The Half-Blind
    by Bill Moyers, TomPaine.com
         The Bush administration’s hostility toward freedom of information dates back to the days when Rumsfeld and Cheney worked for Gerald Ford.

    Kucinich Introduces Bipartisan Legislation To Allow Iraqi Parliament To Vote On The Future Of US Occupation

    No elections will be credible while occupation continues
    Iraq’s current political process will not solve the crisis. Only a US and British pullout and a UN sponsored poll can do that
    Harith al-Dari
    Thursday December 15, 2005

    • 

      jimstaro on December 16, 2005 at 6:42 pm

      ‘Iraq, Ourselves’: America’s Own Chronicle of its Hellish Descent

    • 

      jimstaro on December 16, 2005 at 7:46 pm

      Brett Dennen – The Holidays Are Here (and We’re Still at War)

      Home Page, with Pics

       

      Listen To Song,MP3

      Lyrics

      A Great Song!!

12. 

    Salunga on December 16, 2005 at 5:46 pm

    

13. 

    CabinGirl on December 16, 2005 at 6:49 pm