"A sock did me in a few nights ago"
"A plain white sock." (link)
- Myrna Bein, mother of Army specialist Charles Bein who was stationed in Iraq.
"I had brought Charles' clothes home from Walter Reed to wash. Everything had gone through the wash and dry cycles and I had dumped the freshly laundered clothes onto the bed to fold them."
"I found one sock... just one. I folded all the rest of the clothes and still, just one sock.
"I walked back to the laundry room and searched the dryer for the mate. Nothing was there. I looked between the washer and dryer and all around the floor, in case I'd dropped the other sock somewhere during the loading and unloading processes."
"My tired and pre-occupied brain didn't get it. As I walked back to the bedroom with the one sock in hand, it hit me like a punch to the gut. There was no other sock. There was also no other foot, or lower leg, or knee. I stood there in my bedroom and clutched that one clean sock to my breast and an involuntary moan came from my throat; but it originated in my heart." (link)
Update [2006-9-30 19:2:51 by BentLiberal]: Hey everyone, we're going to do something special and bring together 2 great diary series for one night. This diary on "Women and War" will be the first in a new Feminist Supervixen Special Diary Series. Here's the info from
hrh:
BentLiberal offered this diary to be posted as part of the "Feminist Supervixens Special Diaries" series. These Special Diaries are reports/essays that share themes and goals with the Supervixens but are posted separately from the regular Thursday night "feminist circle" get-togethers. Thank you, BentLiberal!
The premise of this series (pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4) is that the Iraqi Civil War has already begun. The facts on the ground speak to that. It's up to us to present these facts and I intend to do so, weekly - without the noise.
There's alot of sad endings here. It's not always that fun, but the problem is, they count on us ignoring it. They hope we'll be distracted. They try to put a pretty face on war, when there simply is no pretty face to war.
Now I'm not saying that we have to be 24 hours a day full bore into a diary like this. No one could do that. But we need to be aware, that this is what's going on, and we need to spread that awareness to people who are in denial - because those are the people that support Bush/Cheney and the GOP.
War is such a disgrace, that it should be the last possible thing we turn to, the last avenue we go down after trying all others first.
So, ease yourself in here. Read one. Or read two, if you can. Don't torture yourself. But do me one favor. When you feel that twinge of saddness. When you get that sense of outrage...channel it. Aim it. Steer it. Because, collectively we will use our strength to defeat the selfish perpetrators of this war, and throw them out of office, replacing them with someone more like ourselves.
From the Newswires:
Friday 29 September
When Hannah L. McKinney reenlisted in the Army early last year after giving birth to a son, she told her father in Redlands that the military would never send a young mother to Iraq.
But in November, with her son only 1 year old, McKinney shipped out to Iraq as a private first class with the 542nd Maintenance Company, 44th Corps Support Battalion based at Ft. Lewis, Wash. She was a clerk responsible for ordering spare parts.
The 20-year-old was killed the night of Sept. 4 after she left a guard tower at a logistics base in Taji, north of Baghdad, to go to the latrine and was run over by a Humvee...Her husband, Chris McKinney, 21, a fellow private first class at Ft. Lewis, said he has been told the Humvee driver was intoxicated and is in custody, facing disciplinary action. (LA Times)
(Photo credit: redlanddailyfacts.com)
Thursday 28 September
A soldier was charged with refusing to go back to Iraq with her unit.
(Seattle Times) - A Fort Lewis soldier who says that sexual offenses by three superiors left her unwilling to return to Iraq was charged by the Army with missing a troop movement and being absent without leave.
The charges announced Wednesday against Spc. Suzanne Swift, 22, carry the risk of a court-martial trial and imprisonment. But Army officials also are considering less severe actions, such as a restriction of privileges or a letter of reprimand and discharge.
There's also an excellent article on the subject in the Chronicle. (Photos shown are also from the San Francisco Chronicle.)
* * *
Magna Carta? What Magna Carta?
Thursday's second featured female is kossack gabriella who was taking down names from the US Senate after reading this post from Raven.
News Item:
(CNN) -- Nearly two-thirds of Americans
surveyed consider Iraq to be in a
civil war, a CNN poll said Thursday...read more
Left: An Iraqi girl carries her sister's shoes
from a car bomb site Thursday in Baghdad. It was
unclear if her sister was injured.
Wednesday 27 September
There's two sides to every story. Let's look at the next story from someone else's point of view. (Because that's how we expand our minds)
US strike in Iraq kills four women
BAQUBA, Iraq: (Gulf Times) Right: Women cry after seeing the bodies of their relatives who were killed in the US air strike yesterday*
* * *
(Reuters) ..."I was inside preparing for Ramadan morning meal. I heard explosions and shooting and I ran out," Anaam Jassim, a young, weeping woman told Reuters television as neighbors held her arms.
"When I came back I saw all my family killed. My father -- four women and three men. All of them, including my brother and his pregnant wife. They took two of our family away, a man and a woman. They were wounded," she said.
...
Earlier reports from Iraqi police wrongly described the air strikes as a mortar attack. The U.S. military said it knew of no mortar attack in the area and neighbors interviewed by Reuters television confirmed the building was hit by air strikes.
* * *
Video Footage from Reuters.
*A special thanks to Avila at Never In Our Names for her help in researching this story.)
News Item:
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. report released on Wednesday said the Iraq war provided al Qaeda with a training center and recruits...read more
Tuesday 26 September
West Point buries cadet killed in Iraq Tue Sep 26, 6:16 PM ET (AP) WEST POINT, N.Y. ...
* * *
Emily Perez is dead...
by 8ackgr0und N015e
Emily Perez had a passion for books. She loved to read. In 2001, she graduated from a public high school outside of Washington DC in an area known mostly for gangs, drugs, death and despair. Emily was straight-A student. She could have attended any university she chose. She chose West Point.
Getting admitted to West Point is no easy feat. First, you need to be nominated for consideration -- usually by your senator or congressional representative. Then you are evaluated in three areas: academic performance, demonstrated leadership potential, and physical aptitude.
Emily was a leader among leaders. She was the first black woman to serve as corps commander sergeant major at West Point. She graduated in the top 10% of her class. In spite of all that promise, this story does not have a happy ending...
News Item:
[A]ccording to a poll by Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times...59 per cent of respondents think Iraq is engaged in a civil war. read more
Monday 25 September
The damage done by war is rarely only immediate. Often it continues to manifest itself in other ways. When you read these next stories, please do think about cause and effect...and then try to have some compassion.
(The 3 stories below are about the same family. --BL)
25 Sep. 2006 Mother of soldier killed in Iraq faces drug charge The mother of a local soldier killed in April while serving in Iraq was arrested yesterday on drug charges, police said...As of last night, no bail had been set and (Betty) Vezina remained in police custody.
20 April 2006 Family's grief turns to fear (Manchester) - Two gunmen looking for money...invaded the home of a family mourning the death of a soldier killed in Iraq last week...
13 April 2006 Explosion kills NH soldier in Iraq 21-year-old Army Pfc. George Roehl Jr.,...was...killed Monday outside of Baghdad while on patrol when a roadside bomb exploded...He joined the Army a year ago because he wanted more for his life, said his mother. "It's a family thing, his grandparents were in the military; all my kids are thinking of joining still, even my little girl," she said...(Betty) Vezina has been a single mom for a decade, juggling school and work and raising a family.
Above right: Family friend Patricia Emery left, with Vezina and her son, Ben Roehl, 17, describes how armed robbers came into their Manchester home.
Army Pfc. George Roehl Jr., the oldest of 5 siblings, liked to read dictionaries and excelled at video games, acording to his mom. His cousin Edward Roehl is currently serving in Fallujah (Al-Anbar Province.) link
Question: What have we wrought?
Question: Should this woman really be in jail?
News Item:
Bomb Kills 37 in Iraq; 3 U.S. Troops Die - BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - read more...
Sunday 24 September
An American soldier in a convoy...prays that a boy with a live grenade won't jump in front of her truck, forcing her to kill the child...An Iraqi woman watches as soldiers raid her neighbors' home and drag away an 80-year-old man while his children and grandchildren sob and shake with fear.
These and other first-person accounts of the war in Iraq have been formed into a new one-woman show, "Women Speak: Iraq."
Louisville native Shannon Woolley...was curious about encounters between female U.S. soldiers and Iraqi women. What was that like? What did each of them think and feel about the war?
By Judith Egerton (The Courier-Journal)
News item:
(NPR) - Iraq War Fueling Terrorism, Intelligence Report Says...read more
"War hovers like a climate everyone is living in, and dying in -- a complicated, tragic, absurd, sublime atmosphere of intensely felt existence." (link)
War should be the last possible thing we turn to, the last avenue we go down after trying all others first. It's heartbreaking to read about what's happening. People just like you and me are fighting and dying in this war. People who look cute and sassy are dying in this war.
Let's channel our sadness, our outrage, and our anger and work to elect competent, caring, intelligent people: people that care about the people who fight these wars (on both sides). Let's work to elect people that won't start these ridiculous wars for their own greedy purposes.
Collectively we will use our strength to defeat the selfish perpetrators of this war, and throw them out of office, replacing them with someone more like ourselves. Someone that puts people first and profit second.