Candlelight Vigil No. 231, 8/11/10

"Your presence," said a 53 year old woman who often joins the vigil as she did last night with her husband, "is what keeps us from being oblivious to what's going on in the world."

This is a well educated couple with solid professional careers, but it is easy to be uninformed about the wars because the U.S. military censors heavily, Congress quickly appropriates war funding with little debate and the news media gives them little coverage. Yet the information is readily available over the Internet for those who care.

Last night's vigil went well, with numerous horn honks and waves of support, along with some two fingered peace signs. But this vigil, like other recent vigils, could not have taken place without my wife Anne driving me to and from it, nor without Korean War veteran and peace activist John Fortier avidly participating, including setting it up and putting it away. The reason is my right shoulder is recovering from surgery and my arm is in a sling.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, it has been a brutal week. Over the weekend 106 Iraqi men, women and children were killed and 346 were severely injured, most of them from car bombs and suicide bombers. And yesterday, the day of the vigil, 21 Iraqis were killed and nine were severely injured.

In one instance in Saidiya, 60 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen broke into a home and killed a man and two women. They then grabbed two children and sent them out to tell the soldiers at an Iraq checkpoint. When the Iraqi soldiers burst into the home, it exploded killing eight soldiers and wounding four others.

While in Baghdad, at 6 am, gunmen broke into the home of Dr. Intissar al-Tuwaijri, one of Iraq's top physicians, tied up her husband and shot her to death. They stole 250 million Iraqi dinars (about $215,000). She had been the director of Alwiyah Maternity Hospital in central Baghdad.

In Afghanistan this week, the world was shocked by the Taliban killing 10 aid workers, six Americans, a Briton, a German and two Afghans who provided medical services to outlying villages. They were members of International Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which describes itself as a "not-for profit Christian organization" providing Afghans medical and educational services since the 1960's.

The lone survivor, a driver, was spared when he dropped to his knees and prayed aloud, reciting verses from the Koran. He said the gunmen grabbed the medical team's money and possessions and then shot them to death. The Taliban later claimed the aid workers were American spies and were trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.

But thousands of miles away, our Los Angeles area vigil in memory of all who have been killed or seriously injured in these wars was peacefully conducted. John referenced the 57 year old Korean War Armistice which ended the fighting and questioned why such an Armistice couldn't be negotiated now in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

America could declare an immediate cease fire and negotiate an Armistice but chooses instead to continue the Iraq War and expand the Afghan War, as the death and destruction goes on. There are now millions of refugees living in squalid conditions and tens of thousands of orphaned children. But for undisclosed reasons America keeps fighting these wars, whatever the price.

To President Obama, I offer Gandhi's words: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" And as the President and Congress continue these wars our vigils continue as well.

Dick