Thank you for posting. And be proud for having written these words!

Your words have left me speechless and embarrassed to be an American. Thank you for sharing difficult words. Ones that we ALL have to hear. And bear.

Did you see the reports a couple days ago of a military troop forcing civilians back INTO Fallujah? I haven't had the time to research the story.

You know how I feel.

Max's class collected pencils and erasers to send to Iraqi children in an effort to help with the rebuilding of Iraq.

We decimate their country, then we send them pencils. What message does this send to my son's generation? Both in Iraq and here at home?

I've been reading your blog for a while as I enjoy your knitting, the wonderful pictures of your dogs and just in general, a well done and interesting blog. Today's blog entry is one of the best you've ever done. I'm glad you decided to repost it. It's an eloquent way of saying what I feel. Thank you.

As a nation, we are in deep denial about the real cost of war. We think it is too awful to see what war really is and can't even countenance a movie depicting the realities of war. It's too upsetting; it scares the children; it's bad for morale. We need to sheild ourselves from the reality of what is happening or we may not have the will to continue with it. That would be a shame. War is a videogame; the 'bad guys' are not real people and certainly aren't children. If this is a thing that we feel needs to be done, then we ought to have to guts to face up to what that really entails. Maybe our children should at least have some limited access to what is going on. Then they won't be so confused someday about why 'those people over there' seem to hate us so much.

Thanks for being brave. People need to be made to see what we have become as a nation, where a zygote in California is more important to us than actual adult and child humans, here and elsewhere. Reminds me of an ancient Malvina Reynolds song: "... it can't be murdered till it's born."

Thanks for posting the link to Sr. Joan's essay. As a Catholic, I am always struck that the voice of reason in the Church most often comes from the women.

I hate this war, but mostly I worry about the whole world. I worry about nature, and how cruel people can be to each other, and what materalistic value's have done to our world. But its human nature it seems. It's sad.

We need to know and share the truth. Our arogance can be astounding.

Bravo Mary. Please do not be afraid...we're all here to support you!

-Wendy

I remember watching footage of the war in Vietnam every evening when I was a child. I had a very real, if somewhat sanitized, idea of the costs of war to humanity.

These days, my children and students have few visuals of the war. They do not comprehend the human costs at all. I am gravely concerned about this. Trust the BBC to bring it out.

Thank you for being brave and true to your convictions to go ahead and let this post.

Thank you for posting. That was a thought I had not even considered and appreciate your courage.

Jenn

Thank you for posting. Thank you for caring. All of my husband's family lives in ramadi in Iraq and we lived there during the last war, so I know a little bit of what it is like to live day to day through pretty awful circumstances, but I can't even imagine what people are going through now (including our troops- I don't think many of the young people that went over will ever be the same as they were before having to go through the war)

This was a connection I thought of for the first time a few weeks ago, and one I've been puzzling over. To me, the contradiction is very telling. A common way of refuting the argument you present seems to be that babies have no choice in whether they will be aborted, and soldiers in war have a choice whether they will fight and what they will fight for. Personally, I think this is a weak justification. It ignores civilian casaualities, the fact that the invaded country does not usually want to be invaded, and differs personally with me in the issue of whether or not a fetus is a person yet at all, even.

I am loving the thoughtful political opinions that are springing up around the knitting ring. Very eloquent.

i also saw that interview with sister chittister, and it has stayed with me since. thanks for this post.

I wish I could remember the source of the quote.....

"The first casaulty of war is TRUTH."

I think about it all the time.

The news story reports on the number of rebels killed and captured, and the number of US soldiers and Iraqi killed and injured...where are the reports of the number of civilians killed and injured?