The Middle Distance

Is Spain really pulling out? Yes, I see from the BBC website that it is so. Go Zapatero! That's very good news, I'm so glad some group is finally getting sane. Basically anything that discomfits Dubya is A Good Thing to my way of thinking.

I read the eyewitness report - it's pretty much as I thought it would be in a situation like this. Combine young troops with good reason to fear for their lives and a sprawling, chaotic city with combatants and civilians mingled together and you have a recipe for atrocities.

Any war is outrageous, that's just how it is. I'm not saying it's good, nor am I saying we should just turn a blind eye. But all I can do from where I sit is give to the Red Cross or any other group sending aid and do my utmost to get our current war criminal out of the white house. Frustrating as all hell.

Bodycount for Americans is running at 10 a day right now - but the military doesn't give a running total of wounded, and that runs considerably higher as NPR reported a few weeks ago. A veteran's group is maintaining 'Arlington West' on a CA beach - placing a white cross for each soldier killed in Iraq and adding to them every day as a protest against the war. They said they'll maintain the memorial until the troops come home.

May the All-Compassionate Great Mystery look after us, since we as humans don't seem to do a great job of it ourselves.