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

we honor courage in all its forms

we love and support our troops, just as we love and support the Iraqi people – without exception, or precondition, or judgement.

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

two images and poem below the fold

Margaret and Rudy Rose, parents of Army Spc. Christopher D. Rose, center and center right, look at his casket at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, Calif., Tuesday, July 11, 2006. The city of San Francisco buried its first Iraq war casualty after more than three years of fighting. Nearly 200 mourners paid their respects to Rose, who was killed by a roadside bomb last month.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Iraqis wait for killed relatives near empty coffins at Baquba hospital morgue. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki shrugged off fears that Iraq was plunging into a civil war even as more than 40 people were killed, many of them in raging sectarian bloodshed.
(AFP/Ali Yussef)

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Wish You Were Here
written/performed by Pink Floyd

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?

Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.

We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
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The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It’s been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can’t bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can’t bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can’t bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can’t bring myself to care because it’s difficult to see beyond the horrors.

from Riverbend’s blog, Baghdad Burning, July 11, 2006

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read This is what John Kerry did today, the dKos diary by lawnorder that inspired this series

love and support the Iraqi people

join CIVIC’s “I Care” photo campaign

raed in the middle’s blog

support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)

support CARE

support the victims of torture

read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning

read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches

read Today in Iraq

love and support our troops

read Ilona’s important blog – PTSD Combat

support Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

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

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

put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet

support a young heart with an old soul peace takes courage (multimedia)

poetry matters poets against war

support the troops and the Iraqi people

witness every day

While speaking at the YearlyKos 2006 Convention in Los Vegas, former Virginia Governor Mark Warner said (and I paraphrase from memory): “George Bush, incompetent idiot, blah blah blah, went to war in Iraq when the real threat is in Iran.” (my emphasis)

There was a brief pause after his statement, and I regret that I wasn’t brave or quick-witted enough to yell “Bullshit!” into the silence. But the moment passed, Warner picked up his next thread in perfect cadence, and I bit into my box lunch apple.

So now what?

I’m gonna let him know that I think his statement is bullshit, and why. I’m starting here. If anyone knows of other ways, please put them in this thread.

Thanks.