Wikileaks Iraq war logs: every death mapped | World news | guardian.co.uk

Copyright law apparently prohibits reproduction of this amazing graphic; I hope you’ll give it a glance anyway.  Follow the link to scan Baghdad via Google Earth, with every lost Iraqi life – at least, those we know about – marked.

Wikileaks Iraq war logs: every death mapped | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Torture: brought to you by white evangelicals

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

—a Pew Forum study reported by CNN.com

Egad.

Aren’t the torturers the bad guys in the stories of Jesus?  And weren’t there religious patriots cheering them on, calling out, “We have no god but Caesar?”

Why have evangelicals traded the imitation of Christ for the ruthlessness of Rome?

Are they less than dogs?

Why is it that good kids get prison for pot, but wicked presidents go free after ordering torture?

Why is it that “just following orders” was no excuse at Nuremberg, but the Obama justice department finds it adequate for military abusers in the USA?

clipped from takeaction.amnestyusa.org Prosecute torturers The recent release of memos has made all the more clear what we had previously heard about the last administration’s torture policies. Forced nudity. Slamming detainees into walls. Forced sleep deprivation for days of shackled prisoners, standing in diapers in excruciating pain and filth. Although Attorney General Holder, on April 16, suggested that the Obama administration would not prosecute intelligence agents who carried out interrogations following legal advice, both those who authored the policy and those who executed it must be held accountable. Press your representatives to help establish or support a non-partisan independent commission and urge them to help expose and prosecute those responsible for abuses. Background Information

As the Michael Vick case demonstrates, we don’t allow most Americans to practice this level of cruelty against dogs. What reason is there for excusing it against fellow human beings?

Is it because they are Muslims that torturing them has no penalty?  Is it because they are not white?  Is it because they are not US citizens?  Is a Muslim life worth less than a Christian or a Jewish or an atheist life? Is a Pakistani or a Uighur less than a dog under American law?

Is it because we don’t really expect presidents to respect the Constitution they swear to defend?  But what good is constitutional government if the privileged are not equally restrained by it?

This ruin of innocent lives will never be addressed unless Americans demand it.  It can be demanded by following the “take action” link, where there is a simple way to email Senators and Representatives.

No life can be trashed at will by lawless government.  Write.  Write until the least influential have equal justice with privileged politicians.

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• The Question Of Immunity (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• In The Wake Of War Crimes (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Rights groups rip CIA immunity on interrogations (cnn.com)
• In The Wake Of War Crimes III (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Obama’s Prisoner Dilemma: Reject Torture, Defend Torturers (wired.com)
• Spain To Consider Torture-Related Charges Against Bush Administration Officials (crooksandliars.com)
• Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A. (nytimes.com)
• OLC Memos: Inflamatory Assumptions? Rizzo Lied to Cover for CIA Abuse (emptywheel.firedoglake.com)
• Commentary: Torture weakened America’s national security (cnn.com)

Ramadan greetings

To my friends who are Muslims:
May mercy, forgiveness, and salvation be yours in abundance this Ramadan!
I am a better person because of what you have given me. Your friendship is a treasure.

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Tags: Ramadan, Ramadan wallpaper,Ramadan greetings, Muslims, Islam, Christians, Muslim-Christian, Christian-Muslim, Monte Asbury

Shinichi’s Tricycle

We like to think wars are fought by nations. But what a tidy fiction that is! Nations lose no arms or legs or blood or sanity.
Kurt Vonnegut, I believe, said that we allow war because of “a failure of the imagination.” We simply don’t consider what we do when we yield to those pleas of our governments.

The story below might sub for some of that imagination. I’ve clipped just a bit, but I encourage you to read the rest from Doug at the link.  It is excellent.

And I hope you and I can be people who cling fiercely to reality when passions run high and facts seem clear and resistance looks like treason.  For in the end, a share of war’s price will be paid by little Shinichis who find themselves in the way of things others thought more important.

clipped from unitedcats.wordpress.com Shinichi Tetsutani was a three year old boy who loved to ride his new red tricycle. 63 years ago this day he was riding his trike in his front yard. He was playing with his friend Kimiko. It was 8:15 in the morning. A quarter mile away there was a bright flash in the sky. Shin was badly burned and buried in the debris of his house. He was still alive when his parents dug him out, his hands still gripping the handlebars of his trike. They were unable to get to his two sisters in time as the wreckage of their home burned. Shin died that night. The next day his parents buried their children in their front yard, they thought they were too young to be buried in a lonely grave far from home. Shin’s friend Kimiko had also been killed in the blast, so they were buried together, holding hands. Shin’s beloved trike was buried with him. Killing children is a crime, not an act of war God rest their little souls. God grant us the wisdom to never do this again. God help us all through the dark days ahead.

Hat tip to Homeyra. Thanks, friend – you help me remember!

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Tags: war, nuclear, Hiroshima, collateral+damage, civilian+casualities, peace, anti-war, world+war+II, atomic+bomb, nuclear+bomb, war+suffering, stop+war, Monte Asbury