This photo made the front page of the NYT on Memorial Day a few years back...

[Bozita]

[annabanana]

1. It stands.

An Eternal Lament

[hlthe2b]

2. Wrenching... n/t

[RKP5637]

4. War generally means greed for the profiteers and big bucks while the

innocent become patriotic and die following the propagandistic orders. God, war and my country right or wrong.

[Salviati]

10. The entire "defense" industry should be nationalized

The only way we will ever have peace, is if all the profit is removed from war.

[pinboy3niner]

3. Another photo featured again in the NYT and on CNN today...

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/as-memorial-day-nears-a-single-image-that-continues-to-haunt/


And one more unforgettable photo, of a mother's grief ...

[Bozita]

5. And this LTTE appeared in the NYT print edition two days later...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/opinion/l30iraq.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fLetters


To the Editor:

Your May 28 “In Memoriam” front-page photograph of a young woman prostrate with grief at Arlington National Cemetery before the fresh white gravestone of her fiancé, killed three months ago in Iraq, shows once again with unbearable poignancy the price we are paying for this endless and endlessly futile war. With bare shoulders hunched in grief, she seems herself a sacrificial victim.

What can this war ever gain to salve her anguish, to make her believe that he did not die in vain?

James Heffernan

Hanover, N.H., May 28, 2007

[Iwillnevergiveup]

6. And this (minus a gut-wrenching photo)

from our friends over at http://www.crooksandliars.com

Soldiers are not chunks of identical clay; each of them has a story, their own reasons for being caught in a war.

Brave? Maybe - sometimes, under some conditions. Scared, mostly. The younger they are, the more likely their presence had to do with restlessness, cockiness. The need to be part of a winning team, the desire to even a score. Kick ass, take names. Kill them all, let God sort them out.

The older they are, the more realistic they are. This was a steady paycheck, or a way to supplement the one they already had. When they join, it's with their eyes on the future benefit. When they're in the middle of a war, they think only of surviving the next five minutes. Please, God, please. Let me see my family again.

And when they die in the war, each death leaves a hole in the world. It's important to remember that, to not see them as a monolithic casualty list or as an acceptable loss.


"No loss is acceptable. Ask the parents, the spouses, the children. They try. They tell themselves stories of nobility, sacrifice, a greater cause. They cover it up with the ritual rhetoric. But deep down, they must wonder.

Here is how to count the cost: In high school graduation pictures that will never be replaced with wedding pictures. In wedding rings that will never be worn smooth by years. By the daughters who will walk down the aisle with an uncle or brother instead of Dad. By the sons who will find themselves angry and lost, not understanding why. The children who will hear about their mother's eyes, their father's chin but won't ever see themselves reflected in that face.

By the parents who now understand the quiet obscenity of outliving their own children.

Each and every one of these deaths left a hole in the world. That is why we count them.

They mattered."

[SCantiGOP]

7. Colin Powell once said

If the decision to go to war were left to those who had been to war, there would be very few wars.

[beac]

9. And yet, he helped lie us into a 100% unnecessary war.

Colin Powell is a coward. If he had any decency at all, he curl up and die of shame.

[SCantiGOP]

13. I know he's not popular here

But I think he was one of the few people in the Administration who didn't totally buy into the neocon/Cheney game plan. He knows he screwed up and I think he would do anything to be able to go back and change his actions.
That being said, I think the quote is powerful and meaningful, regardless of who said it.

[beac]

16. He had a chance to stand up and prevent that war and instead he chose his position and career.

And he's never truly apologized for it either.

I'm afraid that will always taint that quote for me. It's a horrible reminder of the selfishness and hypocrisy of which man is capable.

[TomClash]

8. You can read Jimmy Regan's story here

Mary McHugh, the fiancé of a James Regan, moved a thousand mourners to tears with her touching tribute at his funeral.  “Jimmy was a hero to many, but he was always very humble,” she said of her beloved.  “He always sought team success and not personal glory.”

Regan was to marry McHugh, a medical student at Emory University, when his Army service ended.  He was killed in February 2007 by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

“Jimmy and I were so excited to stand up in front of God, our family and friends and declare our love for each other,” McHugh said.  ”Only God knows why we were deprived of that opportunity, but it doesn’t change the sentiments I have.”

Regan, an All-American lacrosse player and All-State football scholar at Chaminade High School in Mineola, graduated from Duke University five years ago.  He was deeply affected by the 9/11 terror attacks, which claimed many lives in Manhasset, and turned down a position at financial services firm UBS and deferred a scholarship to Southern Methodist University Law School to join the Army in 2004.  He had earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

http://sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/mary-mchugh-and-james-regan/

Remember that the sons of William Kristol and Joe Lieberman and other neocons never die for their country. It is always someone else who dies while their kids are chosen for fame and fortune.

[lastlib]

11. "Where have all the flowers gone?...."

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls picked them, ev'ry one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to young men, ev’ry one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to soldiers, ev'ry one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, ev'ry one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, ev'ry one.
When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
--Pete Seeger

[WillyT]

12. I Remember That...

Peace...

[tallahasseedem]

14. There are no words that can do this photo justice.

My heart goes out to her.

[fascisthunter]

15. so what will it be tomorrow?

Well, who owns NYT? Because that has much more of an impact on what they right than that popular sentiment.