Iraq

It's all too easy to become bored or complacent about Iraq these days. We know it's a mess, we know we were lied to, we know it's all got something to do with oil... But you just start to let it fade from your consciousness.

Everyday has more Iraq news, and it's pretty much always casualty figures of one kind or another. You might not be counting but these guys are. Let's not forget that everyone of those numbers was a living breathing human being with hopes and fears just like us, and that everyone of those numbers has other living human beings weeping and mourning over the friends and families and lovers they have lost.

I honestly don't know whether pulling troops out now would make things better or worse. But I do know that there are options we have that don't involve war, that don't involve murder, that don't involve torture.

I found the Iraq Pledge of Resistance on the net, it's a nationwide network of activists and organizations committed to ending the war in Iraq through nonviolent, Gandhian and Kingian resistance. A heartening reminder that in the midst of this bloody mess, some of those on the frontline still put their faith in peace, still put their faith in Love.

O Shamash, hear me, hear me, Shamash, let my voice be heard. Here in the city man dies oppressed at heart, man perishes with despair in his heart. I have looked over the wall and I see the bodies floating on the river, and that will be my lot also. Indeed I know it is so, for whoever is tallest among men cannot reach the heavens, and the greatest cannot encompass the earth.

[The Epic of Gilgamesh]