Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 288

15 Comments

1. 

   RubDMC on April 8, 2006 at 1:25 pm

   

   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. 

   James 438 on April 8, 2006 at 1:37 pm

   
   and for poetry month:

   Now, When the Waters Are Pressing Mightily

   Now, when the waters are pressing mightily
   on the walls of the dams,
   now, when the white storks, returning,
   are transformed in the middle of the firmament
   into fleets of jet planes,
   we will feel again how strong are the ribs
   and how vigorous is the warm air in the lungs
   and how much daring is needed to love on the exposed plain,
   when the great dangers are arched above,
   and how much love is required
   to fill all the empty vessels
   and the watches that stopped telling time,
   and how much breath,
   a whirlwind of breath,
   to sing a small song of spring.

   Yehuda Amichai, 2005
   translated from the Hebrew by Leon Wieseltier

3. 

   dada on April 8, 2006 at 1:38 pm

   

   Peace

4. 

   momagainstthedraft on April 8, 2006 at 2:28 pm

   My son is 20….his name is Brian.

   For his sake and for all the other Brian/Bryan’s I stand against this immoral war and it’s criminal leaders.

   • 

     supersoling on April 8, 2006 at 3:35 pm

     He’s safe with you here, on this Earth.
     My son will be 19 this month. His name is Justin.

     Be well…

5. 

   jimstaro on April 8, 2006 at 2:45 pm

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

   How GI Resistance Altered
   The Course Of History:

   “Sir! No Sir!” A Timely Film

   Premiers Week of 4/3/2006

   by Paul Rockwell
   Oakland, California

   “General, your tank is a mighty vehicle.
   It shatters the forest and crushes a hundred men.
   But it has one defect:
   It needs drivers.

   General, a man is quite expendable.
   He can fly and he can kill.
   But he has one defect:
   He can think.”
   — Bertolt Brecht

   When award-winning actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland organized an anti-war review, touring U.S. military bases and towns around the world, the GI rebellion against the war in Vietnam was already in full force.

   In one theatrical episode, evoking laughter and applause from thousands of soldiers and Marines, Fonda played the part of an aide to President Richard Nixon.

   {From FTA}

   “Richard,” she exclaims. “There’s a terrible demonstration going on outside.”
   Nixon replies: “Oh, there’s always a demonstration going on outside.”
   Fonda: “But Richard. This one is completely out of control. They’re storming the White House.”
   “Oh, I think I better call out the 3rd Marines.” Nixon exclaims.
   “You, can’t, Richard,” says Fonda.
   “Why not?” says Nixon.
   She answers: “Because they ARE the 3rd Marines!”

   Click To Watch Trailer:

   Cable, DSL or Other Broadband connection

   56 or 28k modem connection

   National Theatrical Screenings of Sir! No Sir!

   The three-decade blackout of GI resistance is not due to any lack of evidence. Information about the resistance has always been available. According to the Pentagon, over 500,000 incidents of desertion took place between 1966 and 1977. Officers were fragged. Entire units refused to enter battle.

   A counter-culture blossomed inside the military. Affinity groups, like “The Buddies” and “The Freaks” were formed. Afros, rock and soul music, bracelets and beads, the use of peace signs and clenched fists — a culture antithetical to the totalitarian culture of military life — proliferated. Prison riots in the stockades, from Fort Dix to the Marine brig in Da Nang, were common by 1970.
   In response to a detested recruitment slogan — “Fun, Travel, Adventure” — GIs named one periodical “FTA,” which meant “Fuck The Army.” When GIs ceased to cooperate with superiors, the military lost control of culture and communication.

   Like Pablo Paredes, Kevin Benderman, Kelly Dougherty, Camilo Mejia — to name a few war resisters of our time — the GI resisters of the 60s and 70s showed incredible courage. Pvt. David Samas, one of the Fort Hood Three, who refused to serve in Vietnam, said in one impassioned speech: “We have not been scared. We have not been in the least shaken from our paths. Even if physical violence is used against us, we will fight back…the GI should be reached somehow. He doesn’t want to fight. He has no reason to risk his life. And the peace movement is dedicated to his safety.”

   In the end the GI anti-war movement — enlisted youth, draftees, poor kids from ghettos, farms and barrios–paralyzed the biggest death machine of modern times. In short, people power altered the course of history. (The book “Soldiers In Revolt,” by David Cortright, makes an excellent companion to “Sir, No Sir.”)

   “Sir! No Sir!” is organized around the testimony of prominent war resisters. Yes, there are a lot of talking heads in “Sir, No Sir.” But their revelations, backed with images and footage of rebellion, are unforgettable. We meet Donald Duncan, the decorated member of the Green Berets, who resigned in defiance in 1963 after 15 months of service in Vietnam. His article in Ramparts, “I Quit,” generated great excitement in the student movement.
   We also meet Howard Levy, the Green Beret medic who refused to use medical practices as a political tactic in war. His court martial caused a huge impact on GI and civilian consciousness. The troops supported him.

   Of course times have changed. The ’60s are over. And while every generation determines its own destiny in its own way, while history itself is but “a light on the stern” — it is still true that “The spirit of the people is greater than man’s technology.”
   “Sir! No Sir!” is a work of hope.

   “As God walks atop this Wall and weeps,
   I hear him say, `These were my sons.’

   The sound of his tears fall silenced,
   As hands are washed in the Potomac,
   And it runs red with waste!

   The Pontius Pilates of the new Rome,
   Repeat history on full automatic.”

   Nicholas James Weber
   Vietnam Veteran

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

   When (R) is placed after name, it stands for ‘Repugnant’ { Now ‘Actual’ Name Of Political Party In Charge, Please Refrain From Using ‘Republican’, Call Them As Their Leadership Is}

6. 

   alohaleezy on April 8, 2006 at 2:57 pm

   now before it is too Laet!

   IMPEACH the Fascists

7. 

   ask on April 8, 2006 at 3:17 pm

   
   Iraqi Shiites targeted in fresh communal strife

8. 

   supersoling on April 8, 2006 at 3:37 pm

   

9. 

   cotterperson on April 8, 2006 at 3:43 pm

   

10. 

    swimmer on April 8, 2006 at 5:52 pm

    
    peace.

    • 

      supersoling on April 8, 2006 at 8:09 pm

      Swimmer…
      so nice to see you here. I wish the circumstances were not as they are.
      SS

      • 

        swimmer on April 8, 2006 at 9:00 pm

        Thank you, i am just stopping by to read some articles. i think i will post another on Village Blue next weekend.

11. 

    shermanesqe on April 8, 2006 at 5:59 pm

    

12. 

    idredit on April 8, 2006 at 8:55 pm

    what hell have we wrought? We have no more young ones to give.

    Al-Jazeera reporting today that Egypt’s Mubarak, blaming Saddam, said  ‘US must not leave Iraq yet.’

    The Egyptian president says civil war has broken out in Iraq and the conflict would spread and worsen if US forces left the country.[.]….

    that many in the large Shia Muslim populations of Arab states around Iraq were more loyal to Iran than to their own countries…

    Asked what effect an immediate US troop withdrawal would have, he said: “Now? It would be a disaster… It would become an arena for a brutal civil war and then terrorist operations would flare up not just in Iraq, but in very many places.

    “It’s not on the threshold [of civil war]. It’s pretty much started. There are Sunnis, Shia, Kurds and those types which come from Asia.”

     “I do not know when the situation in Iraq will stabilise. I personally do not see a solution to the problem in Iraq, which is practically destroyed now.”

    Loyalty to Iran

    Mubarak said Iran exerted strong influence over Iraq’s majority Shia population and Shia living in other Arab countries.[..]

    Mubarak also dismissed the idea of sending Arab troops to Iraq in place of US and allied forces, saying Iraqis had made clear that they did not want to be controlled by foreigners.[..]

    An Intercession for Peace.