In a Cold Room, Memories of a Life of Flowers

In a Cold Room, Memories of a Life of Flowers

Alissa J. Rubin [LA Times] interviews Abu Imad, an Iraqi who once tended the garden at Yamouk hospital. Shortly before the start of the war in Iraq he was assigned to tend the dead at the morgue.

"....I received two children this morning — 3 years old. They had been sent [to the hospital] by their mother to have an injection … they had coughs and colds. And they [the nurses] used half the dose that they use for adults, but the children died immediately. They will wait for the report from the forensic [to find out whether an overdose or a bad reaction was to blame]. Only the father came for the bodies, and he beat his head against the wall, crying for them. I wept indeed when I saw those two children today. I felt they were my own children. They were wearing pajamas and T-shirts and their hair was very long. They were like flowers..."

LINK

Around the Blogs

Around the Blogs

At Voice of a Veteran, there is a fish tale I think you will like.

Corrente (Lambert) has a great "you provide the caption" challenge. I learned about it from Dan Froomkin, who has some very interesting things to report here.


Mark Adams asks a plain and simple question:

Why am I supposed to expose my bleeding heart for the Iraqis? Their dead and wounded remain uncounted and uncountable (to borrow Reichmarshall Rumsfeld's phraseology). WE are not better off with a new Mecca for terrorists recruitment and training in their newly founded Islamic Republic.

Cindy Sheehan's supporters and a group of counter-parent-protesters are both planning major rallies for today. I think it looks like a WWF wrestling match where parents of fallen soldiers get down in the mud. You know it's bad for a President's administration when it comes down to something like this. Bush fails to rally the nation and we get a wrestling match of grief and other assorted emotions.

Kathleen Parker can tell you how she thinks Maureen Dowd is wrong, but she can't tell us what Kathleen Parker thinks is right.

..people lost in their emotions get a pass from the usual standards of debate and fair play, as Sheehan has. That's about to change. As others arrive in Crawford who share Sheehan's grief and her moral authority — but not her politics — her free pass expires.

Parker's tone suggests that Mrs. Sheehan is going to get her comeuppance - all free passes are off the table, the big face-off between grieving mothers is coming, etc. We can all see that this is a circus brought on by a war that no American clearly understands - but I don't think you'll see Kathleen Parker mentioning that fact anytime soon.

Arthur Chrenkoff is also on a mission to prove MoDo wrong, and in doing so, he only serves to prove her right by displaying thoughts from other parents of fallen soldiers who have the same level of moral authority. Mr. Chrenkoff shows his political stripes, in a "can't beat 'em, join 'em" sense, by saying that "Kos and the rest of the left think that exploiting Cindy Sheehan's exploitation of her loss is the best new secret weapon in the war against George Bush." So now it's Chrenkoff's turn to exploit the other parents. We can all see that this is a circus brought on by a war that no American clearly understands - but I don't think you'll see Arthur Chrenkoff mentioning that fact anytime soon.

Michael J. W. Stickings has been a guest blogger at the Carpetbagger Report this week, and he has something to say about George Will's recent campaign to "shrill-ize" the Democrats he thinks are not "moderate" enough. When I think "shrill", I think of a Vice Prez who says "F**k you" to a fellow Senate member. That's pretty shrill. See my comments from August 21st.


Steve Soto talks about the LA Times article where a summary of what is known about Plamegate is provided. It is made clear that TIME magazine deliberately laid back on the story last year because it was close to the time of an election. Soto says:

I’m sure watching what the White House and Mighty Wurlitzer did to CBS over the TANG memos convinced Time that they made the right decision to keep the public in the dark on this until well after the election.

I believe this whole thing is an American tragedy, and I'll wager it will be looked upon in posterity as such.