Reporter: Mr. Harrison, with all that’s going on in the world today, why did you decide to focus on this (Bangladesh)?”
George Harrison: “Because a friend asked me to help.”
from a press conference for the Concert for Bangladesh
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, My Left Wing, and TexasKos.
image and poem below the fold
A Shi’ite Mehdi army member grieves during the funeral of two colleagues in Baghdad’s Shi’ite Sadr city May 15, 2006. A funeral was held for two members of the Mehdi army who were killed after an ambush by insurgents, police said.
REUTERS/Kareem Raheem
An undated Ministry of Defence handout photograph released on May 15, 2006 shows Private Joseva Lewaicei aged 25 years of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment who was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra, southern Iraq on May 13, 2006. The bomb, which killed two soldiers and seriously wounded a third, exploded late on Saturday night as a convoy of four armoured land rovers was on patrol just north of the city of Basra, British military spokesman Squadron Leader Al Green said.
REUTERS/MOD/Ho
from Eye Against Eye
by Forrest Gander
As if nothing were wrong egrets dip-feed in near shore channels
the human genome reveals chromosomes from parasites
annexed by our DNA long ago
mongrels to the core and tourists
with cameras take the front pews
the enemy blows himself up at Passover dinner
the enemy trembles in a cave starving
the enemy lets go a daisy cutter
a million cubic feet of mud slides down the slope
toward a single bungalow in Laguna Beach
– – –
Join CIVIC’s “I Care” photo campaign
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
The candle that DianeL first lit many months ago, and which has become such an important part of these diaries since, is still available here.
You can copy that image into your own comment (you can leave it on my server), craft your own image, and/or rate this one – not for mojo, but to leave a small mark after taking this moment – as a sign that you know, but do not approve, and are not resigned.
“It is like trying to ignite – to pass on the responsibilities as much as possible to everyone else.”
Ravi Shankar
Peace
Bomb Kills 4 GIs, Interpreter in Iraq
Let your tears come. Let them water your soul. ~ Eileen Mayhew
peace
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For The Children – Innocence Lost!
May 17, 2006 | The mother of a fallen staff sergeant cries as she is presented a medal during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Fifty-four coalition soldiers have been killed in the first 16 days of May alone, a trend that could make May the deadliest month of the occupation for coalition forces so far.
(Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP)
Calls Iraq Occupation “Grave Error”
Iraq vet gets a shot at Congress
Use Of Unfit Troops Blasted – Senators Criticize Military Practices
Arlington – Liberty Bell
GI Special 4E18 What’s Our Mission Here.pdf
.
“How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
— Bob Dylan
≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
The Role Iran Is Planning in the Country – Baghdad Burning ≈
LEAVE Iraq to the Iraqis
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
April 21, 2003
Death Song
by Thomas McGrath
A MOMENTARY LOSS OF BELIEF IN THE WISDOM OF THE COMMON PEOPLE
AND A CURSE ON THE BASTARDS WHO OWN AND OPERATE THEM
“War is the continunation of policy by another means.”
So said Von Clausewitz
But war is also
The continunation of false consciousness
And falsified policy and politics
And greed masked as bourgeois generosity
By the falsified desires of American imperialism
By presidents wedded to cowboys and missiles
By chauvinist beer salesmen peddling the stars and stripes by the six pack
By the trained psychopathic liars of the State Department
By simple-minded sods in all fifty states
By the born-simple clergy and suckers of religion
By the bearded dons and Ph.D. duddums of Academia
By painters selling third-hand Da Da at fancy prices
By poets who have forgot their songs in their gilded cages
By farmers sold out and put on the road and still finding their enemy in Nicaragua or El Salvador
By workers given their walking papers for life and their heads still so unscrewed they
think the enemy is Russia or Comminism
By housewives pissing their pants and dreaming of Red Terror
Or hijackers invading Podunk
By other means.
Politics is the continuation of war by other means.
And now, you celebrated American jackasses:
You still want war?
Go let a hole in the head shed light on your darkling brain-
Remember Vietnam?
Go and be damed!
But don’t count on me for nothing your righteous
stupid sons of bitches!
Impeach NOW.