This article has links to speeches, photos, and the event description for the 3000th casualty memorial, at Memorial Park in Houston, Jan. 14-20, 2007. This event was held to memorialize the terrible loss of life, (US and Iraqi), that we have had so far during the Iraq invasion and occupation. A summary of the event is on Houston Indymedia at: http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/55378.php The memorial and the presentations were sponsored and organized by: * Veterans For Peace, Chapter 12 (VFP) * Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) * CodePINK * Houston Peace & Justice Center (HPJC) * Progressive Action Alliance (PAA) Letter to the editor of the Houston Chronicle by Jim Rine. lead organizer for the event: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4481620.html/ Slide show of the 3000th memorial, by Lynn Lamoreux, in PowerPoint format (5.7 MB): http://www.mediamax.com/photosbylynn/Hosted/Houston3000Memorial.ppt More photos and videos of the memorial are on Houston Indymedia at: http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/55820.php A 2-minute video report that was broadcast on KPFC-TV, channel 2 is at http://www.click2houston.com/index.html (although it probably won't be up on that web site much longer) -- Look at the upper right side of the page when you open it. It takes a moment for the video to open. Included is a photo of the prayer poles created to memorialize the Iraq civilians who've died in the war. Several people gave speeches or other presentations for ceremonies held each evening. The text of some of these speeches is below, along with links to other articles about the memorial and the ceremonies.
COMMENTS ON THE 3000TH MEMORIAL TO THE PEOPLE KILLED IN IRAQ
(Memorial Park, Houston, January 17, 2007)
The 3000th Memorial in Houston is very moving and I want to thank the people who created it - Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and others. The Memorial honors not only the 3000 plus U.S. military and contract personnel who have died in thie Iraq war, but also the thousands of Iraqi citizens who have died. We don't like to talk about the Iraqis who have died, but they are also our brothers and sisters.
President Bush vows to continue the war in Iraq despite the fact that the majority of the American people want to end it. Recently, a news commentator said that the war was already lost and that Bush was just stalling for time by sending more troops there. I don't know what the President's motives are, but he certainly seems arrogant and uncaring about what the American people want at this time.
Since we are celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week, it is quite appropriate that we consider his words about another war that was raging 40 years ago in Vietnam. I think that his words apply to today's Iraq War, especially since the United States is in the process of accelerating the war and putting thousands more of its young people in harm's way.
In 1967, King described the U.S. Government as the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" and said that he could no longer remain silent. He had to speak out for the sake of those who had died, for the sake of his own government and for the sake of those trembling under the violence perpetuated by the United States.
He spoke about the multiple ill effects of war:
1. The harm it brings to the young people of this nation and their families.
2. Its negative impact on the poor.
3. The bad example it sets for the youth of the nation on how to solve problems without violence.
4. The devastation it brings to the country where it is being waged.
King went on to say that the people of Vietnam must see Americans as "strange liberators". He commented about how "deadly western arrogance" has poisoned the international atmosphere.
He spoke of the need to immediately end the war:
"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother of 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 dashed 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 an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initative to stop it must be ours".
King also spoke about about war being a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit. He called for a revolution of values that would say of war:
"This way of setttling differences is not just. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologially deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love."
He said, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death" . He called for a reordering of priorities so that the "pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war" .
King said that we have a choice between "nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation" .
I personally believe that this war with Iraq was unnecessary. These deaths were unnecessary. Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to al Qaeda as claimed by the Bush Administration. I also don't believe that the war was about bringing democracy to Iraq or getting rid of a brutal dictator. I think it was conducted primarily to secure the oil reserves of Iraq.
However, in spite of the misguided motives of the politicians and powerbrokers of our nation, we honor the memory of those who have died in Iraq. They paid the ultimate price. And we resolve, in their names and in their memory, to end this war and to do our very best to avoid wars in the future.
David Atwood
Houston Peace and Justice Center
Memorial for Casualties of the Iraq War
January 14, 2007
Thousands Dead, Thousands More Picking Up the Pieces
We are all here to honor these fallen U.S. Military Personnel, Iraqi and civilians from all over the world that have died as a result of the Iraq war. You may be wondering why we chose to honor ALL people who have died in this war. There are many reasons that this should be done. It’s important that as human beings we memorialize this great loss of humanity to the world. It is important that as human beings we realize the toll that war takes on this entire world for generations to come. It is important because until human beings acknowledge the total losses, we will continue to spend the lives of valuable human beings trying to conquer one another in a futile bid for everlasting power. It is important because histories of wars are often untold, rewritten, or forgotten, and so the lessons are not learned by future generations.
When we say three thousand, six hundred thousand or even six hundred do we really comprehend the huge black hole in the world that results from these deaths? The number of deaths of American soldiers in Iraq has now surpassed the figure of those lost on 9/11. We were horrified by those deaths, yet it occurs to me that the deaths of all people in Iraq have been minimized and are consigned to mere statistics. We are not horrified. We are not devastated. We accept it because we are told it is necessary? Some even claim we must sacrifice more lives so these deaths in Iraq are not in vain. What does that mean? Do you know what this means? I do not. When I hear someone say this, it does not ring true in any cognitive way. Why will more deaths validate those who were so violently taken away from us? Do MORE deaths lessen the pain or loss of those who have died? I do not believe that those that have died will be shamed by Americans deciding that they are tired of killing and being killed. I do not believe that those who have died will suffer shame if Americans decide that the loss is just too great to continue this war. I do not believe that those who have died will be diminished by people in America standing up to their government and demanding accountability for what they have done IN OUR NAME and at the expense of the lives of our children, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers by the THOUSANDS.
Does the world comprehend what the real result of war is? Is there any true way to calculate what we will miss now that these human beings are gone forever? Maybe one of these young people would have discovered a cure for cancer. Any one of these people may have had the key to the universe locked in their brain; waiting to be released by maturity and experience in life that now they will never know. Possibly we have put an end to the life of a human being that could have taught the world how to learn to resist the manipulations of powerful men, and solve differences in a peaceful way instead of allowing ourselves to be led into the abyss of war.
One soldier of many valuable young people lost in this war, Emily J.T. Perez, 23 years old, the daughter of a military family, born in Germany graduated at the top of her class in high school, a West Point graduate and the first minority female command sergeant in the history of the of the U.S. Military Academy.
But her REAL accomplishments were evidenced by her compassion and love for mankind. While she was STILL in high school Emily Perez started an HIV-AIDS ministry to help teenagers in her community deal with the stigma and depression of AIDS. Emily died Sept 27, 2006 when a roadside bomb exploded underneath her humvee near Najaf, Iraq.
I only bring up Emily Perez as an example of this huge loss, we have suffered. In reality each and every person that died in Iraq was important to America and the world.
Society has a huge gaping hole in it due to these losses. Not only have thousands of children lost their parents, but thousands of parents have lost their children. Each family has parents, siblings, aunts, cousins, friends that have been harmed. The survivors have all lost the love and support of someone irreplaceable to them.
My father died when I was a child. I can tell you from experience a family never recovers from that kind of loss. You may go on, and you will survive but nothing is ever as it was, and the potential for harm to come to those children is hugely magnified when they have lost a mother or father. I’ve heard it said by people that a child should never die before a parent, and that there is no greater loss or sharper pain. I can tell you from experience losing a parent when you are a young child is devastating. Not only have you lost one that guides you. You have lost your innocence. From then on you know just how vulnerable you are, and you speak a little quieter, and believe a little less in the goodness of this world. Thousands upon thousands of those that have died in Iraq were parents of young children. These children will grow up with a bitter heart against those who caused the death of their parents. Thousands of men and women have lost their children and they too will continue their lives with bitterness and a lack of trust towards those they hold responsible for the deaths of their children. It is not just ONE generation that will suffer, for these insecurities and this anger and confusion follows them all their lives and influences how they raise THEIR children. The cycle goes on and on.
Those of us left behind to pick up the pieces, have to cope with this loss and this prejudice, hatred and anger. It is a vicious cycle of anger, revenge and the dehumanizing of those we all perceive to be our enemy. We have to have someone to blame for these violent and unnatural deaths. It is human and natural to look for the ones who have caused your lifelong pain and to want them to pay for it. Yes, lifelong pain. Losing someone you love in a sudden and violent way, leaves a bloody wound in your heart that may eventually stop bleeding but never really heals. Visions of their last moments, alone, in horrible pain knowing they are dying haunt you forever. Those picking up the pieces never got to say goodbye, or tell their loved one, they treasured them one last time. It is unnatural, unnecessary and unconscionable that human beings are still killing each other in wars perpetrated by governments.
Looking at all these flags, symbols of living, breathing human beings that were once walking among us, smiling, laughing, crying, and touching the souls of all those they came into contact with is devastating. Yesterday when I was helping put these flags down I was in a terrible mood and it was hard to maintain the energy necessary to keep going. I thought it was because I was physically tired. After I went home and lie down in my bed, trying to relax, I realized it had nothing to do with being tired. I was horribly upset at the devastation and the HUGE numbers of vital people lost to us forever. We can’t get them back. They cannot be recalled. We cannot change this horrible history. We are all part of it no matter how we try to divorce ourselves from it. It will always be with us.
My son is still alive, yet he feels guilty for being alive because he went to Iraq and came home unharmed. Unharmed? Feeling guilty for just being alive is not unharmed. Witnessing the deaths of thousands of other human beings is not unharmed. We are ALL harmed. We are ALL immeasurably harmed. We are harmed just by being desensitized to death and destruction. We are harmed by the loss of these people that are gone forever. People that never got a chance to contribute never got a chance to do good works. People that we will never get a chance to embrace or discuss our differences with. People that leave behind a circle of friends and family that now are hurt, angry, forlorn and some of who will want to extract revenge.
There have been times when I was wearing my Military Families Speak Out tee shirt to various events; people have come up to me and asked me if my son was dead, while he was in Iraq. My heart stops, and I have to say, “I don’t know. I hope not.”
This is such a horrible feeling, not knowing if your son is alive or dead from day to day.
I can’t even explain to you what this feels like. It is torturous. No one should have to go through this.
I need to talk about the Iraqi that have lost their lives, yet I do not know them. I do know some Iraqi Americans that have had to sit and watch their country and hundreds of thousands of their citizens being annihilated and turned into a nation of frightened, confused and sometimes violent people due to the violence perpetrated upon their country. Will this country EVER recover? Will a nation of people that LOVED Americans ever think well of us again? How many orphans and injured children does this country have to take care of? How will they manage? Their entire lives are gone, their jobs, their homes. Can we even imagine this? What can we do to repair this?
Not much. Money won’t buy them back their loved ones. Money won’t buy them back their arms and legs. Money won’t buy them back their homes.
So many Iraqi have been killed over 600,000. Does anyone here really believe that many Iraqi were enemies of America, or do you believe they were killed mostly because Americans are unable to determine who the enemy is? Have they been killed because the balance in their country was skewed by war and bad people took over and started killing those they feel are dangerous to them, or for power?
It is time America realized that we do not have the answers to all the problems in this world and we do not understand the culture of the Mid East. It is time Americans called in these bad men that are determined to rule the world. It is time that every person that signed off on PNAC is NAMED and should be recognized for their ruthless determination to kill off as many people as necessary to gain control of the riches of the world. It is time to realize that their claims to want to spread “Democracy” are false and only the excuse they use to invade countries for the sole purpose of obtaining control and they do not care how many have to die to accomplish these goals.
IT IS TIME TO STOP THE KILLING.
Sherry Glover read the following piece by Steve Young, with permission, at the Jan. 14, 2007 ceremony for the 3000th casualty memorial in Houston. She said, "I felt that it expressed what I could no longer find words for. I think it was most effective to read it while having the audience look toward those flags."
3000 Is No Mere Number
by Steve Young
Jan. 1, 2007 -- Hollywood (apj.us) -- I've been writing some semblance of this commemorative article each time we reach another hundreth level of soldiers' lives sacrificed to George Bush's fire sale of sanity in Iraq. My concern has always been that we never forget that behind each number is a real person lost forever -- not a comma in history, but an every second heartbreak to every person that life had touched -- something that I don't believe this president feels, no matter what red, white and blue catchphrase he or his spokespersons use to feint a sense of loss,
This last day of 2006 brought us the loss of US serviceman number 3000 in Iraq.
The number's name is Spec Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas.
When asked about the 3000 deaths, Deputy White House Press Secretary Scott Stanzell assured us that the President "will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain."
I'm sure Spec Donica's mother and father are relieved by the President's willingness to sacrifice their son and the others before him.
The only way that this President can truly comprehend what he continues to bring this country is to feel 3,000 times what every single one of those deaths felt like to their family. If he actually feels anyhting, my guess is the the closest he can relate to the parents of Spec Donica would be when his daughters' partying priveleges were lost in South America.
Today we mourn the tragic loss of Spec Donica, the 3000th US soldier to die in the Iraqi war. At the same time we begin the death march to 3100. So many of talk radio's Lords of Loud would choose to rationalize the 3000 killed as nominal when compared to the 55,000 killed in Vietnam. While to most, 3000 deaths are 3000 too many, to those who have not suffered personally or dodged serving when they had the chance, 3000 deaths are also much too easy to cope with.
The administration continues to work diligently to hide the real cost of war, and not just through its exclusion from the budget. Discussions of death are meant only for very private consumption. But coffins hidden from public view should not keep private a family's heartache. It insulates the public from the truth, much like listening to "We're patriotic, or you're traitorous!" talk radio. The Lords of Loud honor the soldier by wrapping themselves in red, white and blue distortions. President Bush tells you and me that he honors those deaths by "staying the course" or "adapting to win" or "never been stay the course," or whatever the catchphrase of the week is. The President and talk radio's superstars say they pay tribute to those who have fallen. But in reality, their job has been to dismiss these deaths as fodder and justification for an unnecessary war, and for more deaths. That's not tribute. That's mad.
Still, one cannot swathe war into a "right" or "left" issue. It is not a question of whether invading Iraq was right or wrong. It's an issue that goes to the heart of war -- real war, and its real consequences. Within its reality is a means to how we can truly pay tribute to those who have fallen, how we can sincerely identify with those families who have lost -- and it is more than an outreach to the suffering. It's an exploration of one's own humanity.
Before you can honestly understand war's demands, it is incumbent to empathize with those who have already lost, and you cannot empathize with those who have suffered by reflecting on 3000 deaths. You empathize by contemplating a single death...
.. 3000 times.
You have to see each of the 3000 not as a number but as a real person; someone who had a history, albeit a much too short one; someone who was once an infant in the arms of a mother or a father. A mother and a father once filled with joy, hope, and dreams. You have to understand that the man or woman who died was once a child playing with friends, laughing, crying, absorbing an education, working on building tomorrows. You have to place yourself inside each one of those human numbers, entering a battlefield incredibly scared, breathing heavily, gulping fear, alive, but unaware that in moments you would die.
To comprehend a death in war, you have to acknowledge that every one of these fatalities began with a horrific split second when fiery hot metal tore apart human flesh. A moment that slowly drew life from its all too human target. Let's not forget that we're talking about a kid, too young to die, but dying just the same. With every death you must acknowledge there was fear, agony, panic, screams, freaked out buddies uncontrollably trembling over their wounded and soon to be dead comrade; youngsters trying to comfort another youngster, yet knowing that their best lying won't fool their bleeding brother.
Then there's the moment that the soldier passes from life to death. But you still can't walk away from this hideous nightmare, because the nightmare doesn't end there. For each death brings endless waves of tears, vivid nightmares, horrid news to be relayed to next of kin. Each death is soon followed by a ringing of a phone, carrying a death rattle of torturous news that will break, into a million pieces, the hearts of mothers, fathers, children, wives, husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues...news that will never change no matter how hard they ask God to change it. And they will ask...over and over and over.
You cannot ignore the implication of the loss; the sudden baptism of another young widow or widower forced to raise children less one parent; mothers and fathers who will spend the rest of their life arguing with God that children should not die before a parent; siblings waking up every single day hoping that the previous day's incomprehensible pain was just a bad dream but faced with a day choking down the heartbreak, because this nightmare is much too real. And always, the disbelief that they will never see that person again.
Now here's the kicker. Each and every one of those 3000 times that you remind yourself of how hideous each casualty is, you have to think of that death as your own child's. Because 3000 times it was some parent's child who died.
Now... multiply what you feel 3000 times.
You can believe this war is right, that George Bush is the greatest president we ever had, and every soldier died for a good reason. But before you can honestly say that, you have to make yourself go through each death as if it were your own baby's blood spilling.
Because, like Mr and Mrs Donica, if we continue this war, it could be.#
Steve Young is a Senior Fellow at the Extreme Far Centrist Foundation' Political Husbandry Conservation Centre and Stereo Repair. In his spare time, he is also an author, comedy writer, columnist, LA talk show host and author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" http://www.greatfailure.com and the new "15 Minutes". You can also check out the satirical side of Steve every Sunday in the LA Daily News http://www2.dailynews.com/steveyoung