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.
4 images and poem below the fold
A Pakistani Shi’ite Muslim cries during a rally in Karachi February 23, 2006. The Imamia Students Organisation held the rally to denounce the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Iraq and to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers.
REUTERS/Zahid Hussein
Iraqi soldiers are reflected in a pool of blood at the site where a roadside bomb exploded in central Baquba city, northeast of Baghdad. Gunmen have shot dead 130 people in two days of sectarian violence in Iraq after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine, prompting renewed political paralysis and warnings of civil war
(AFP/Ali Yussef)
ATTENTION EDITORS – VISUALS COVERAGE OF SCENES OF DEATH OR INJURY Bodies of journalists from the Al Arabiya television are wheeled in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, February 23, 2006. Gunmen killed a correspondent for Al Arabiya television and two members of her crew in the city of Samarra, the Arabic channel’s news editor said.
REUTERS/Stringer
ATTENTION EDITORS – VISUALS COVERAGE OF SCENES OF DEATH OR INJURY A doctor treats a bomb victim at a hospital after a car bomb attack in Baghdad February 21, 2006. A car bomb parked at a Baghdad market killed 21 people and wounded at least 25 on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks for weeks. An Interior Ministry official said the 25 wounded were nearly all civilians, while a hospital source said medics were treating at least 32 people injured in the explosion.
REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
Transcendental Blues
by Steve Earle
In the darkest hour of the longest night
If it was in my power I’d step into the light
Candles on the altar, penny in your shoe
Walk upon the water – transcendental blues.
Happy ever after ’til the day you die
Careful what you ask for, you don’t know ’til you try
Hands are in your pockets, starin’ at your shoes
Wishin’ you could stop it – transcendental blues.
If I had it my way, everything would change
Out here on this highway the rules are still the same
Back roads never carry you where you want ’em to
They leave you standin’ there with them ol’
Transcendental Blues.
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“I don’t walk about belief – whether or not we should have started this war. Rather, I walk because we shouldn’t live our lives as if all is normal. People are suffering every moment because of this war – U.S. Soldiers and their families, Iraqi soldiers and civilians and their families – and this question of what we can do to end this suffering should be with us every day.”
a Concord (MA) area resident – in a letter to the editor regarding their own participation in a public vigil each Friday morning at the town center – ‘We Walk for All Who Suffer Because of War.’
– – –
put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet
read Ilona’s important new blog – PTSD Combat
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
Iraq sectarian bloodshed leaves 130 dead
Peace
Poems from Raghab in Nepal
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The time has come to impeach President Bush
≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
Al Qaeda Buys Control Six US Port Facilities ¶ Chertoff Hands Over the Keys ≈
Dems’ Template for Success: Follow Jack Murtha …
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
IRON, by Carl Sanberg
“Guns,
Long, steel guns,
Pointed from the war ships
In the name of the war god.
Straight, shining, polished guns,
Clambered over with jackies in white blouses,
Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth,
Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses,
Sitting on the guns singing war songs, war chanties.
Shovels,
Broad, iron shovels,
Scooping out oblong vaults,
Loosening turf and leveling sod.
I ask you
To witness-
The shovel is brother to the gun.”
I grieve today for the enormous loss of lives.
I grieve today for the enormous loss of liberties.
These are the end times.
These are dark times,
fearful times,
heartbreaking and ragemaking times Leezy.
But these aren’t the end times. This may be the end of what we’ve known and grown comfortable with but it will lead to something different. Hopefully it will be something better. That remains to be seen.
I’m hopeful that we will have some say in the matter.
Through force of ideas, ideals, or arms if that’s what it takes.
Hang in there Alohaleezy.
Yes Super, my friend you are right. I am usually not so bleak but so much today has made me sad. There is a deep heaviness in my chest and a lump in my throat. Between the news of SD banning abortions, Iraq’s devasting day of death and so many other things I feel very sad and overwhelmed today. I will hang in there my brother. You all help with your words of encouragement. Thank you.
Peace just peace…..
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For The Children – Innocence Lost!
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.”:
George Washington (1732-1799) Founding Father, 1st US President, ‘Father of the Country’ -Source: Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, Ref: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)
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The Truth About Dubya And Dubai
by Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation
This focus on an Arab company fuels prejudice and obscures the real issues at hand.
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"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.":
George Washington - (1732-1799) Founding Father, 1st US President, 'Father of the Country' - Source: Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, Ref: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)
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THE LITTLE WAR PRESIDENT THAT COULDN'T
Bold and decisive
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Number Of Iraqi civilians Slaughtered In America's War 100,000 +
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War 2279
The War in Iraq Costs $242,774,532,836 See the cost in your community
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Now running for office: an army of Iraq veterans
All but one of these 11 House hopefuls are in the Democratic Party. []
By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON - They call themselves the Band of Brothers, about 50 men - and a few women - all Democrats, all opposed to the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, and all military veterans.
One more thing: They're all running for Congress this year.
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"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."
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Shameful treatment of our veterans Many are homeless; for this they served?
By JONATHAN P. BAIRD
For the Monitor
February 19. 2006 8:00AM
Last year the Nashua Planning Board approved a plan to create 15 one-bedroom apartments and five two-bedroom apartments for homeless veterans and their families. The great thing about this initiative was its local recognition of the continuing need of veterans for long-term permanent housing. The not-so-great thing is that the number of potentially eligible New Hampshire veterans far exceeds any available assistance.
For all the words written about the Iraq War, not enough attention has been paid to the honorably discharged veterans, including those with service-connected disabilities, who are sleeping in doorways or alleys or under bridges.
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As the state is a soulless machine,
it can never be weaned from violence
to which it owes its very existence.
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
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Feb 16, 2005
DOUG J. SWANSON
VA patients paint picture of neglect
Director acknowledges problems, says Dallas hospital is improving
01:28 PM CST on Sunday, February 13, 2005
By DOUG J. SWANSON / The Dallas Morning News
John Hahn lay marooned in his bed last year at the Dallas veterans' hospital, desperately seeking a nurse. An Air Force vet whose terminal bone cancer had made him a paraplegic, Mr. Hahn required turning every two hours.
That day, March 21, he started at 5:30 a.m. pushing his call button, which rang at the nearby nurse's station. No one came. He pushed it throughout the morning and into the afternoon, and still nothing.
"Called/Requested help for the past 8 hrs," he wrote in his journal.
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A Lesson Quote Brought Back In Support Of This New Generation Being Used:
Vietnam War History 101:
"The Only Glory In War, Is In The Imagination Of Those Who Were Never There"
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Tammy Can Do It!!!!
Disabled in Iraq, veteran makes move into politics
She sees House race as a second chance
By Peter Slevin, Washington Post | February 20, 2006
CHICAGO -- The smiling candidate in rimless eyeglasses and a long woolen skirt maneuvers carefully among tables and chairs as she works a crowded Starbucks. She is taking small steps, and the reason for the slight awkwardness in her gait is not instantly clear.
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Every Bomb dropped in Iraq Explodes over New Orleans and the Gulf Coast!!
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Feb 23, 8:51 AM EST
Iraq Vet Accused of Stabbing Wife 71 Times
Walking Towards Washington, Till Peace Has Come: The Song
“Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another.”