Families in pain
Be sure you're sitting down before you click on this link, which shows scenes from funerals of some of the US military personnel killed in Iraq during October and November.
The site where I found the pics, cryptome.org, also carries an invitation to kill George Bush, from which I completely disassociate myself. However, I think they've done a great service by compiling and presenting a number of collections of very moving photos (mainly AP photos) of the funerals of those killed in action. The link I give is to the latest of those pages.
I cried when I scrolled slowly through this collection.
Then I also thought of the even greater number of Iraqis killed in the present war, and the extremely degrading situations in which the mortal remains of many of them have been left... I also thought of the extreme anguish suffered by Iraqi family members who do not know if their loved ones are dead or alive, and can only imagine the torment of, for example, a wounded family member left to rot and to dehydrate in some bombed-out house inside Fallujah.
Is it better to know or not to know "the whole truth" about the fate of a threatened loved one?
Is it better to launch a war in the face of a presumed threat, or to seek to have one's concerns addressed through methods other than war and violence?
How can we inform US voters better than before about the true human costs of war?
Why hasn't President Bush gone to a single one of these funerals?
No answers here. Only questions.
When those families feel grief and weep for their loved ones' victims in Iraq I will attempt to feel some sorrow for the loss they are feeling.
Until then...
I viewed the photos you linked to in your November 27, 2004 post. As I did so, admittedly with misty eyes, I wondered how many families in Iraq have been able to hold funerals for their loved ones killed by U.S. occupation forces. Were the families in Fallujah able to find enough of their family members' bodies to bury, or did the dogs and other scavengers leave only the bones? Were they pushed into mass graves? Were the bodies washed? There are more questions than answers. Yet, someone will have to answer for the pain and suffering caused by a war launched under false pretenses.
And back at the ranch in Tehran they are also showing funeral pictures as a suicide bombing recruiting tool. Here is the link plus some excerpts:
"The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites), for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.
Photo
AP Photo
It looked at first glance like a gathering on the fringes of a society divided between moderates who want better relations with the world and hard-line Muslim militants hostile toward the United States and Israel.
But the presence of two key figures — a prominent Iranian lawmaker and a member of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards — lent the meeting more legitimacy and was a clear indication of at least tacit support from some within Iran's government.
Since that inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses, with no sign Iran's government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.
...
Samadi claimed 30,000 volunteers have signed up, and 20,000 of them have been chosen for training. Volunteers had already carried out suicide operations against military targets inside Israel, he said.
But he said discussing attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq "will cause problems for the country's foreign policy. It will have grave consequences for our country and our group. It's confidential."
As devoted Muslims, members of his group were simply fulfilling their religious obligations as laid out by Khomeini, he said. "
E. Bilpe
Um ... if it's "confidential", then why is "Mohammad Ali Samadi, the spokesman for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement", telling the Associated Press about it?