Progress Pond

Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 358

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

we honor courage in all its forms – today for Kevin Eping

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.

image and poem below the fold

Relatives of victims of a bus ambush sit on the bloodstained floor of a hospital hall in Baghdad July 11, 2006. Sectarian violence rocked Baghdad on Tuesday as gunmen ambushed a minibus driving through a Sunni neighbourhood, taking Shi’ites home from a funeral, and killed 10 of those aboard, police said.
REUTERS/Ali Jasim (IRAQ)

Coastal Plain
by Kathryn Stripling Byer

The only clouds
forming are crow clouds,

the only shade, oaks
bound together in a tangle of oak

limbs that signal the wind
coming, if there is any wind

stroking the flat
fields, the flat

swatch of corn.
Far as anyone’s eye can see, corn’s

dying under the sky
that repeats itself either as sky

or as water
that won’t remain water

for long on the highway: its shimmer
is merely the shimmer

of one more illusion that yields
to our crossing as we ourselves yield

to our lives, to the roots
of our landscape. Pull up the roots

and what do we see but the night
soil of dream, the night

soil of what we call
home. Home that calls

and calls
and calls.
– – –

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

– – –
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.

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