anti-war

Last Friday my second post about the aftermath of the Boston Marathon came shortly after the identity of the suspects in the bombings were given faces and names.

Perhaps the effort on the right to make the second war with Iraq appear to be some sort of success is just a visceral refusal to acknowledge having brought about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people while being very wrong about 911, WMDs, the reception we’d receive, pretty much everything. Certainly having neocons mark the anniversary with a panel of the guilty talking about how great they were lends a sense of deliberateness to the efforts to spin the war as a success, or at least claim it ended well as a result of “the surge." Whether it’s deliberate or just a reaction isn’t really the thing to be concerned about however. They’re trying to spin history. The story they hope is remembered is the war went poorly at first, but then the neocons came up with their brilliant “surge” and all came out OK. Can they really cover up one of the biggest blunders in US history? Yes. It’s been done before, after another contender for biggest blunder.

Children are our most precious resource. They are our future as well as reminders of our past. They embody our hopes yet their vulnerability makes them available prey for those who seek domination over others.

We deliberately left the last day fairly unscheduled so we could begin the process of packing – especially all the gifts we were given by the Iraqis we met. We’ve been given pens, keychains, a mirror, a crystalline sculpture, books, jewelry, prayer beads and holy Karbala mud-stones. I purchased an Iraqi flag for the student we help support at Augsburg College as well as a wall map of Iraq – labeled all in Arabic. I’ve gotten a few other small gifts but I’d rather leave any extra money I have for the work of the Muslim Peacemaker Team.