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Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Memorial Day is the day to remember those who died in defense of this country.

The American dead in Iraq were not defending our country. Their deaths represent an even more significant tragedy.

(Broken bottles under children’s feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won’t heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall)

They died for causes that no-one has been able to articulate faithfully or honorably.

(There’s many lost, but tell me who has won.)

Comfort the troops, support their families.

(The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters
Torn apart)

Bring them home.

(And its true we are immune
When fact is fiction and tv reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die)

Bush mashup – Sunday Bloody Sunday:

(How long, how long must we sing this song?)

Least Immoral Choice in Iraq

Least Immoral Choice in Iraq

We still haven’t heard an answer to the basic question: for what “noble cause” have we invaded Iraq?

Are we in Iraq just to secure the oil for the energy companies that get so much support of every kind from the US government?

Not to be a party pooper or anything, but what about the death and pain and chaos and suffering? What is the reason for the sacrifices of U.S. and other allied soldiers? What is the justification for the thousands killed on every side?

For what reason have we punched the hornet’s nest in Iraq?

For what are we going into further, almost unthinkable debt?

How much longer will we turn away from the reality?

Declare war, or cut executive powers of war.

Argue for oil interests, or stop killing for them. You can’t tell me that we don’t have permanent bases along the pipeline.

Don’t send thousands more Americans out there. How does that help anything at all?

I’m just waiting for the someone to start making comparisons between the executions of Saddam and Jesus. USA Pilate and Judas, all mixed into one. Yeah, we made him, and we’ll make sure he’s hung like a witch… start the taunting…

Look! Look at reality. This is not a movie.

Wake up, America. Your future is being stolen from you, too.

The thing I remember most vividly is the soldiers screaming in pain and crying out for their mothers. My mother went up and down the aisles holding their hands, stroking their brows, giving them sips of water. My sister helped light their cigarettes. Many of them were amputees. Some had no stomachs, some had no faces. …

I hope that when President Bush discusses sending more troops to Iraq, knowing that we will have to pull out sooner rather than later, that the conversation comes around to the human suffering. Does anyone at the table ask about the personal anguish, the long-term effects, emotional, psychological and financial, on the families of those killed, wounded or permanently disabled?

When I hear about the surge, all I can think of is those young soldiers on the plane to Texas. We have already lost more than 3,000 soldiers, and many more have been wounded and disabled.

We have three choices here. All three are immoral. We can keep the status quo and gradually pull out; we can surge; or we can pull out now. When I think about those young soldiers on that plane coming back from Japan years ago, I believe pulling out now is the least immoral choice.

from The Least Immoral Choice: Squander No More U.S. Lives in Iraq
By Sally Quinn
(Washington Post Tuesday, January 9, 2007; Page A15)
(Sally Quinn is a co-moderator of On Faith, an online conversation on religion.)

Crawford Vigil Goes On

Crawford Vigil Goes On

Cindy Sheehan needs our help!

Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, traveled to Crawford, Texas with hundreds of anti-war activists to confront President Bush at his Crawford ranch. Sheehan wants to ask Bush, “Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?” and demand a speedy withdrawal of troops in Iraq. During their march in the 100 degree heat, the protesters were forced into a ditch teeming with fire ants. Sheehan, who co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace, refuses to leave until the President comes out to speak with her.

She would like President Bush to explain this noble cause to her. “We deserve and expect him to welcome us with answers to as why our loved ones are dead.” On Thursday Rice and Rumsfeld visit the ranch, and Friday is a fundraiser event for the haves and the have mores.

Mr Bush did not know her son’s name when she and her family met him in June 2004. Mr Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully towards her by referring to her as “Mom” throughout the meeting.

Her site is at http://www.meetwithcindy.org/

Daily Kos has lots of information and links to help Cindy Sheehan in Crawford Texas. Join Code Pink in a fast, write letters, send funds, show up and join the protest if you can. Code Pink, Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out are helping, and there is a thread at DU with the latest information.

For more background, see her 2004 interview at Buzzflash, her testimony at the Downing Street Memo hearings, her ad for RealVoices.org, and the story according to CNN – as well as some excellent photos of what’s going on at the Lone Star Iconoclast.

Get a Google daily alert for news on Cindy Sheehan

Thanks to Gentle Breezes for the update.