That is a very nice tribute," said a 45 ish woman as she walked up and read the sign.
A nice tribute it is, for Wednesday was Veteran's Day in the U.S. but the vigils mean far more than that, as they reach out to everyone who has paid a severe price in the Iraq War.
In Iraq, the death and destruction continues. On Monday for example, in Baghdad, two bombs killed 13 people and injured 35 more. While in Balad Ruz, a female suicide bomber left 22 people dead and 33 more were injured.
While in the U.S., The New York Times broke the scandal, "Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died." On September 16, 2007 Blackwater security guards opened fire on a crowd of Iraqi people killing 17 and wounding many others.
Iraq is very profitable to Blackwater and they wanted nothing to jeopardize that revenue stream and so three months after the shootings, they tried to bribe some Iraqi government officials to make the problems go away.
While Blackwater continues working in Iraq, next year in Washington, DC five Blackwater guards are to be tried for manslaughter and a sixth guard has already pleaded guilty.
As a company, Blackwater has never been charged criminally, although they are being sued for damages by the Iraqi victims in a U.S. federal court. For more details, please see the New York Times front page story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/middleeast/11blackwater.html?th&emc=th
Meanwhile, last night's vigil was joined by John Fortier, a Korean War veteran and a peace activist. Since just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he has been hosting a vigil every Friday evening at a nearby location.
But last night, he added an additional vigil in honor of it being Veteran's Day. And when it finished, he joined this one. John is bright and insightful, and understands war and all of its horrors well. He also has a quick sense of humor and it is always a pleasure to have his company.
Dick
No comments:
Post a Comment