Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 279

16 Comments

1. 

   RubDMC on March 28, 2006 at 5:48 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. 

   ask on March 28, 2006 at 6:40 am

   Schools, Kids Becoming Targets in Iraq

3. 

   idredit on March 28, 2006 at 9:57 am

   Behind the numbers killed… Our invitation to leave can’t be far behind.

   Prof. Juan Cole leads off his post today

   As Many as 90 Killed
   Badr Demands Khalilzad’s Expulsion

   [..]The Intrepid Ann Garrels and Joost Hilterman report that some Shiites are speaking now of a second great betrayal by the Americans of the Shiites, as they fear that the US it tilting now toward the Sunni Arabs. In spring of 1991, the US stood by while Saddam’s forces massacred rebelling Shiites after the Gulf War.

   [..]Some Shiites, according to al-Hayat, are saying that the US is deliberately attempting to provoke a civil war in Iraq. Among their concerns was the US military’s announcement that the attack on the Mustafa Husayniyah in Ur was the work of an Iraqi military unit. Which unit? Where? To whom does it report? Is it little more than a death squad? Is it commanded by the Americans? Why didn’t the Prime Minister know about this attack, which spilled over on Dawa Party offices? PM Jaafari is a member of the Dawa Party.

   The Badr Organization, a political party that represents the paramilitary Badr Corps, the Shiite militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, demanded Monday that Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, be expelled from that country.

   (emphasis added)

   In the middle of the Iraq civil war, we’re firmly in a sink hole. Shiites who stood to benefit from our help have labeled our actions ‘the second great betrayal.’

   How much longer do we stay and continue to participate in ethnic cleansing? We can sanitize it by using the new coined ‘sectarian violence’ but ethnic cleansing aka Bosnia is what it is. As we wear thin our Shia welcome, ‘The Battle for Baghdad continues…’

   What a Dick!  We’re not in “the last throes”

   In the name of humanity, an intercession for Peace.

4. 

   cotterperson on March 28, 2006 at 10:06 am

   

   Impeach NOW.

5. 

   dada on March 28, 2006 at 10:17 am

   

   Peace

6. 

   BrendaStewart on March 28, 2006 at 10:39 am

   What struck me in the picture of bush and the little boy is that the boy was not seemingly happy to be there.  The look in his eyes and his demeanor seem as if wanting to get away from the position he finds himself in.  But then again why was the boy there in the first place.The future of our world depends and is in the hands of those children.  What will our future be?!  Scarrrrry to say the least.  

7. 

   shermanesqe on March 28, 2006 at 10:59 am

   

8. 

   alohaleezy on March 28, 2006 at 1:44 pm

   IMPEACH BUSHCO NOW!

9. 

   Damnit Janet on March 28, 2006 at 3:22 pm

   I can only hope that the Red Regime receives the same horrors they’ve brought to others.

10. 

    momagainstthedraft on March 28, 2006 at 3:29 pm

    Bless you nameless man for loving that child…for taking such good care of her.  You are an angel.

    • 

      Damnit Janet on March 28, 2006 at 3:38 pm

      (((((((momagainstthedraft)))))))

11. 

    liberalelite on March 28, 2006 at 4:35 pm

    What do you think has become of the young and old men?
    What do you think has become of the women and
            children?

    They are alive and well somewhere;
    The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
    And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
            at the end to arrest it,
    And ceased the moment life appeared.

    All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
    And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
            luckier.

    Thank God!  You mean, there really isn’t any reason for us to run around stealing, killing, and hating each other?

    That’s right.  Nothing God creates can really be destroyed.

    But I thought, “Freedom’s on the March!” and “The evil doers would be destroyed.”

    No such thing.

    We’re all on the same side after all.

12. 

    jimstaro on March 28, 2006 at 6:05 pm

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

    “‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’…To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.”
    — George Orwell, 1949

    Walkin’ To New Orleans, Sunday March 19th 2006, 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Flash Video Last Day Of March

    I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country’s most agile military force, the Marines.
    I served in all ranks from second lieutenant to major general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.
    In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
    Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.
    The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras ‘right’ for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
    During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotion. Looking back on it, I feel that I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three city districts.
    The Marines operated on three continents.  
    Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler (former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps), Common Sense, November 1935

    “Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another.”

    • 

      jimstaro on March 28, 2006 at 8:26 pm

      Published on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 by Reuters  
      Agent Orange Victims Gather to Seek Justice

      

      A view of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as it crosses the Rinh River near the village of Thanh Liem, in an undated photo. Vietnam War veterans from the United States, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam gathered on Tuesday to call for more help for the victims of the Agent Orange defoliant used by the U.S. military. REUTERS/File

      ~~~~~~
      “Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another.”

      Walkin’ To New Orleans, Sunday March 19th 2006, 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Flash Video Last Day Of March

    • 

      jimstaro on March 28, 2006 at 9:54 pm

      PTSD Stalks Veterans, Civilians

      Tuesday, March 28, 2006

      BY JOHN HALE

      AUGUSTA – Until 1980, it didn’t have an official name.

      But soldiers in all the wars in history, dating back to the Egyptians and the Greeks, had suffered from it.

      Some called it shell shock, others called it battle fatigue.

      In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association officially dubbed it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, an anxiety disorder that curses people who are forced to relive an emotionally stressful event over and over again.

      It’s particularly acute for battlefield soldiers. But civilians in stressful situations also can get PTSD. Survivors of terrorists attacks like 9/11 or natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina can get PTSD. So can battered wives and abused children.

      On Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Senator Inn in Augusta, Maine Veterans for Peace is sponsoring a symposium on PTSD. The fee at the door will be $10 per person and $25 for health professionals, which includes lunch.

      “We won’t turn anyone aside if they can’t afford it,” said Doug Rawlings, president of Maine Veterans for Peace, who is hoping for a large turnout.

      “It’s tough to deal with,” Rawlings said. “One of the symptoms of PTSD is you don’t want to be around groups. To encourage people to come out to a symposium is a delicate task.”

      The symposium has two featured speakers.

      Bruce Letch is a clinical psychologist in the Psychiatry Department at Togus veterans hospital who has been treating PTSD patients since 1980.

      Glenn Schiraldi is a public-health educator on the stress management faculty at the University of Maryland and formerly on the stress management faculty of the Pentagon. He is author of “The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook.”

      PTSD first came to the public’s awareness after the Vietnam War as thousands of returning veterans experienced flashbacks, nightmares and social withdrawal.

      Now, thousands of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are reporting the symptoms of PTSD.

      Laurie Tranter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, said that a total of 505,366 veterans have already returned from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

      Of that total, 144,424 veterans have sought medical help in VA hospitals and clinics and 20,638 veterans have been given the initial diagnosis of PTSD. That’s about 1 in 25 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t think all veterans who need help have come forward.

      “It’s probably going to end up being similar to Vietnam,” Schiraldi said.

      According to the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” the Bible of the mental-health profession, PTSD has to have four conditions in order to be present. They are:

      € Exposure to an initial stressful event.

      € The event is reexperienced through nightmares or flashbacks or unwanted memories.

      € There is trouble falling asleep, angry outbursts, difficulty concentrating, hyper-vigilance and exaggerated startle response.

      € In the avoidance or numbing cluster, people with PTSD try to avoid anything that reminds them of what happened. People may become socially withdrawn. They may avoid crowds. They may not be interested in parties, sex or hobbies. They feel like they may never have a normal life again.

      Schiraldi said there a number of ways of treating PTSD, most of them centered on talking therapies.

      “You take this memory that’s sitting there like an angry child in a playpen and you try to calm it so you can put it away,” he said. “You try to neutralize the memory, which is intruding, put the pieces together and then store it in long-term memory.”

      He said therapy for PTSD patients usually follows a sequence, such as:

      € Educating the person – normalizing the symptoms and understanding the symptoms.

      € Stabilization phase – making sure they’re not harming themselves.

      € Managing the symptoms.

      € Cognitive behavioral treatments – These include correcting unreasonable negative memories such as “I’m responsible for losing my squad members when we were attacked.”

      Various skills are used for expressing the memories and bringing the traumatic memory to awareness. Schiraldi said art therapy can be very effective.

      “If a soldier comes in with unresolved trauma from his earlier life, such as child abuse, they’re more vulnerable to getting PTSD from combat duty,” Schiraldi said.

      € “Group therapy can be very helpful, especially for soldiers who feel that nobody but other soldiers can understand what they’ve been through,” Schiraldi said.

      € Serotonin enhancers that are used to treat depression such as Zoloft have been found to be effective medications to combat PTSD.

      “Mental-health professionals have many more tools than they used to have and so the prognosis is much brighter,” Schiraldi said. “Individuals would be wise to seek a trauma specialist, not just a generic counselor. Sometimes just talking about it is not just enough.”

      He said the Sidran Institute in Maryland keeps a registry of trauma specialists.

      “There is some evidence that you don’t want to wait, that the sooner you get treated, the better your prognosis,” Schiraldi said. “Some people suffer for decades, not realizing that if they got treatment, their suffering would lessen quickly.”

      “The more you keep these memories secret, the more they will eat away at you,” he said.

      Schiraldi said many members of the World War II generation masked their painful war memories by drinking, and not talking about them for decades.

      He said a U.S. naval veteran who was in a Kamikaze attack in the Pacific on a warship had all his memories flood back over him almost 60 years later when he saw the World Trade Center attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

       

13. 

    deborah on March 28, 2006 at 11:02 pm

    Praying for peace, justice and healing.
    http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f221/deb98126/candle_flame_1.gif