red onion

Bono and Pavarotti are going to sing for the Iraqi refugees. Its great to hear these two names paired, but where were they when the fighting started? Is this the safe road taken, wait for the war to end and then give a benefit concert? If they each gave a fraction of their personal fortunes to the cause, that might help also. I am worn out. I close my eyes and all I see right now is buildings falling, crumbling; I know there are people in those buildings, but I choose to see just the outlines, no faces of figures running from the bombs.

I know that in the rubble of parts of Karbala, Basra, and Baghdad, are children dead and dying, children suffering. There is no cause worth the suffering of children.

I know that Americans are celebrating, jubilant; some Iraqis are celebrating the fall of Saddam. I bet the families who just lost loved ones from the shelling aren't celebrating. But I state the obvious, I hope. Americans are celebrating, all ages and spread all over this country. Some, perhaps a very small minority, are celebrating for the fortune that will be made there.

Americans everywhere are assuming a victory has been accomplished. "We were right all along, because we have won". Somewhere in the hearts of Americans, there is that schrapnel of doubt, so that when you bring up the war, many react very angrily, much of their venom directed at peace protesters. That schrapnel of doubt is going to fester, and possibly poison the whole system. Much of the system is already poisoned. While you support their war they are going to screw you with massive tax cuts for the rich. And unemployment is growing. Happy end of war.

Anyone who asks that you kill in the name of beliefs, anyone who asks you to kill in the name of their beliefs, run, run as fast as you can, and avoid this person always. Because they are asking you to sell your soul for the sake of beliefs. Once sold, it cannot be bought back. Avoid the military. At all costs. Because eventually you will be called upon to sacrifice life and limb, and it may be yours, in the name of beliefs you may or may not share with those asking for your sacrifice.

What do you think the chickenhawkes who ordered up this war did during Vietnam? They avoided service, anyway possible that their family's money would allow.

When a life is taken, for any cause, that cause ought to be examined thoroughly, for the taking of life throws great question on any cause. We can play rationalization games with numbers: it was only 69 killed in this battle, it was only 2000 soldiers killed yesterday, it was a total of 6000 killed, which is 994,000 less than a million. Put a face to one or two of those. Put a child's face. I know that American media doesn't run pictures of dead children. I have a link to those pictures. Do you dare to look?
Unbelievably, it is in "bad taste" to run pictures of dead children in wars. That is the gift of "civilization": bad taste to run pictures of dead children. It is our refusal to look which allows this killing to continue.

Is it possible to get used to the pictures of dead children? I have read of doctors and nurses crying, marines crying, in response to the dead and injured in this war. You might think you are impervious to the scenes of battle; you might think yourself hardened in some way, but all it takes is one image, one image that might remind you of a child in your life, a relative perhaps, or the child of a friend.

Why do we choose to not protect the children of the world from violence? We have instead chosen to put our own personal agendas before children, wether it be to make profit in Iraq, wether it be to further the Republican party because it represents our beliefs, wether it be to justify the war we have waged in other countries, in other times, wether it be to not pay attention, to purposefully keep information concerning the war away from our personal knowledge, so that we don't have to feel anything about it, then we don't have to be inconvenienced in any way.

A woman wrote a rather irate article in the Guardian Unlimited today. She asked, "Why do they have to publish pictures of dead children all over the newspaper?" I'm sorry that I can't find the article to link to, lost somewhere in the endless, seemingly random links on the Guardian Unlimited. But I would say to her, that you can choose not to look, but I am hoping that you will choose otherwise, because, obviously, from your reaction, it is very important to look, because looking will allow the issue to not rest, and you don't sound very rested right now after looking.