this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters

we honor courage in all its forms

cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.

6 images and poem below the fold


Rescue workers extinguish fires in burning cars at the scene of a suicide car bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 19, 2005. The bomb detonated outside a children’s hospital in the western part of the city killing at least two people and wounding 11, including seven policemen, officials said. Police believe the bomb had been targeting a passing convoy carrying a police colonel, who was among the injured.
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)


Bystanders comfort a crying woman who was looking for her son at the scene of a suicide car bomb explosions in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 19, 2005. The bomb detonated outside a children’s hospital in the western part of the city killing at least two people and wounding 11, including seven policemen, officials said. Police believe the bomb had been targeting a passing convoy carrying a police colonel, who was among the injured.
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)


Employees of a hospital react at the scene of a suicide car bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 19, 2005. The bomb detonated outside a children’s hospital in the western part of the city killing at least two people and wounding 11, including seven policemen, officials said. Police believe the bomb had been targeting a passing convoy carrying a police colonel, who was among the injured.
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)


A victim of a roadside bomb attack is treated at a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday Dec. 18, 2005. A string of bomb attacks and shootings overnight and on Sunday left nearly two dozen people dead, including two suicide bombers, shattering three days of relative calm that followed Iraq’s first election for a full-term parliament.
(AP Photo/Samir Mizban)


Three bodies of victims of an attack on the convoy of Baghdad’s Deputy Gov. Ziad Tariq, lie on stretchers in foreground at a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Dec. 19, 2005. At rear a fourth body under a blanket is seen, a victim of another attack, a suicide car bomb near a children’s hospital, which killed at least two people and wounded 11, including seven policemen, officials said.
(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)


The coffin of a shooting victim is loaded onto a vehicle outside the morgue at Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad December 19, 2005. Gunmen opened fire on the convoy of Baghdad deputy governor Ziyad al-Zawbai in the southern Amil district of the city, police said. Three of his bodyguards were killed, al-Zawbai and his secretary were wounded.
REUTERS/Ali Jasim

Lineage
by Ted Hughes

In the beginning was Scream
Who begat Blood
Who begat Eye
Who begat Fear
Who begat Wing
Who begat Bone
Who begat Granite
Who begat Violet
Who begat Guitar
Who begat Sweat
Who begat Adam
Who begat Mary
Who begat God
Who begat Nothing
Who begat Never
Never Never Never

Who begat Crow

Screaming for Blood
Grubs, crusts

Anything

Trembling featherless elbows in the nest’s filth

– – –
put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet

read Ilona’s important diary at MLW – Returning Vet PTSD – One Soldier’s Story as well her comprehensive series on PTSD and Iraq War vets.

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