Iraq, Bush, and Prayer

I wish (sometimes), that amid the stomach-churning news of the increasing dead in Iraq (i.e. 94 dead on July 8; 186 dead on July 7; 84 dead on July 6; 75 dead on July 5; 84 dead on July 4; 78 dead on July 3; and so on ad nauseam), I could be as firm in my resolve as George Bush seems to be in his:

"I wouldn't ask a mother or a dad -- I wouldn't put their son in harm's way if I didn't believe this was necessary for the security of the United States and the peace of the world. I strongly believe it, and I strongly believe we'll prevail. And I strongly believe that democracy will trump totalitarianism every time. That's what I believe. And those are the belief systems on which I'm making decisions that I believe will yield the peace." -- George W. Bush, Cleveland, July 10, 2007

I mean, seriously George? What belief system are you operating on? What about these numbers support your machismo-hinged calls for “staying the course”? …even if we conveniently, as has been done (cast back to General Tommy Franks: “We don’t do body counts”) forget the consequences of war on Iraqis, do you honestly not feel remorse for the thousands of American families who are loosing their children to this catastrophe? (I'm just a bit frustrated here)

Anyway, The Nation recently released an immensely powerful piece on vets returning from Iraq and I find myself, despite my knowing that it’s not good for me, reading and re-reading their stories since I first came across it over the weekend. Hopefully you guys will get a chance to go through it too (definitely worth it, albeit being lengthy). Here’s a telling quote from Spc. Michael Harmon, 24, a medic from Brooklyn:

“I go out to the scene and [there was] this little, you know, pudgy little 2-year-old child with the cute little pudgy legs, and I look and she has a bullet through her leg.... An IED [improvised explosive device] went off, the gun-happy soldiers just started shooting anywhere and the baby got hit. And this baby looked at me, wasn't crying, wasn't anything, it just looked at me like--I know she couldn't speak. It might sound crazy, but she was like asking me why. You know, Why do I have a bullet in my leg?... I was just like, This is--this is it. This is ridiculous.”

With such a personal investment in this war, I’m finding it really hard to go on with my day-to-day activities. Egh -- what's happened to respecting the sanctity of life???

To follow Taha’s lead on extending prayer: May Allah (swt) please enable peace and safety in Iraq and, beyond that, enable us to (always) make a difference – extending our young power and influence to relieve (every) people from (every) burden or oppression they may unjustly be under in whatever (effective) capacity we can.