The press has coverage this morning of a milestone in the US war in Iraq. Here is the report from from the Linkszeitung:
Mit dem Tod eines weiteren Soldaten gestern hat sich die Zahl der getöteten US-Soldaten im Irak auf 2000 erhöht. "Zweitausend Amerikaner haben jetzt ihr Leben im Irak verloren", sagte der demokratische Abgeordnete McGovern in Washington im US-Senat. "Es wird Zeit, diesen Krieg zu beenden." Der Einmarsch im Irak beruhe auf einer Erfindung: "Es hat keine Massenvernichtungswaffen gegeben und keine Verbindungen zu (dem Terrornetzwerk) El Kaida. Es hat keine unmittelbare Bedrohung gegeben." Die Vereinigten Staaten hätten bislang mehr als 300 Milliarden Dollar (250 Milliarden Euro) für den Krieg ausgegeben, "und es ist kein Ende in Sicht." Der US-Senat legte eine Schweigeminute für die Toten ein.
The Boston Globe has a heartbreaking article about the devastating impact of the war on four families in New England. And as we wait for the final resolution of the CIA Leak Investigation, Arianna reminds us that "Plamegate is worse than Watergate" and the players there are directly implicated the needless deaths of 2000 US troops and untold thousands of Iraqis.
Excerpts from Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence:
Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.
[…]The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality…and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
[…]
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."
