Home > 3,000 Dead: So Who’s Counting?

3,000 Dead: So Who’s Counting?

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 2 January 2007
8 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts Governments USA Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan

Gerald Ford, an incompetent, never-elected past president, is being
memorialized today by one of his good buddies and close confidantes,
Dastardly Dick. The execution of Saddam Hussein is being celebrated by a bloodthirsty media and another never-elected, execution-happy, incompetent president. Dozens, if not hundreds, more innocent Iraqis were killed today, and more than likely, the 3,000th soldier crossed the threshold from life into the next world.

We have seen this movie and heard this song before. As Yogi Berra once
said: "It’s dija vu all over again!" In September 2004, our nation crossed
the blood-soaked 1,000-troop line during a heated campaign between someone who actually went to war who was branded a coward, and someone who went AWOL from the military at the same time and was glorified as a tough leader.

In October 2005, our inept leaders’ policies killed the 2,000th soldier.
While I and two dozen others were getting arrested during a "die-in" in
front of the White House, MoveOn.org was organizing the second candlelight vigil in little over a year at another 1,000-troop mark.

On June 16th, 2006, the 2,500th soldier was pointlessly killed, and
White House press spokes-liar Tony Snow said that it was "just a number." As
when the Writ of Habeas Corpus was taken away from all of us; when Bloody
George added a signing statement to a Senate bill that institutionalized
torture, and when yet another criminal against humanity was approved to
replace the previous war criminal as Secretary of War, we, en masse,
exclaimed, "That’s horrible! What can we do to stop these maniacs?!" Then a
vast majority of us, numbering in the millions, "shook it off," shrugged our
shoulders in defeatist hopelessness and false helplessness, then went about
our business of being Americans, disregarding the fact that while we are
"being Americans," there are billions of humans on this planet who are not,
and millions of humans in Iraq who are being ravaged by the malevolent
forces in DC.

When the "number" reaches 3,000 today, or tomorrow, another pain-draped
coffin will be coming home to a mother whose heart will be forever folded in
abject despair, whether she agrees with Bloody George’s war or not. Another
mother’s head will be bowed with grief as the flag that covered her child’s
coffin is handed to her, after it has been as carefully folded as her child
was carelessly sent to war. The father will age 10 years in a few hours, and
perhaps a husband or wife will lose a life’s companion, or a child will have
to endure the pain of losing a mother or father way too early.

As I was lying on a freezing-cold floor, dressed in black and white
prison stripes in Waco, Texas, the other night, feeling sorry for myself for
a minute, I thought of our brave young people in Iraq whom corporate greed
has sentenced to a prison of a war that is turning more nightmarish by the
minute, and I didn’t feel so bad. I thought of the innocent Iraqis who
cannot escape from the prison of an occupation that is killing them by the
hundreds of thousands every year, and I felt downright fortunate. Then I
recalled that Bloody George and his "Holes in the Head" gang were just
contemplating sending upwards of 40,000 more troops to Iraq (and, in fact,
that was why I was in jail that night), and I got downright terrified.

As Bloody BushCo are contemplating escalating the mayhem, I know that
many groups and communities are already planning candlelight vigils, which
should be held to honor our wonderful and brave young people who have been
killed for no reason. However, candlelight vigils will not stop 3,001 or
3,002 - and saints forbid that we will be mourning number 4,000 sometime too
soon in the too-near future.

Gold Star Families for Peace, as a group and individually, deeply mourn
each and every loss, no matter what color the skin or what religion was
claimed by the deceased. GSFP strongly abhors and disagrees with any troop
"surge," and calls for a new commitment to radical, nonviolent activism
through a "peace surge."

Do your candlelight vigils. Sing "Give Peace a Chance," and/or "We Shall
Overcome." Before the last note has died down, head over go to your Congress
rep’s office and do a sit-in, and urge your representative to vote "No" on
any future funding for killing and "Yes" to accountability for Bloody
BushCo. Tell him/her that you are not leaving until he/she agrees to do what
you tell them to. Your elected official works for you - not the other way
around.

Hang signs on freeway overpasses. Support the Military Redress petition
which active duty soldiers are organizing. Send money to peace groups and/or
progressive media. Come to Washington, DC, and march with us on January 27.
Come to Camp Casey at Easter to demonstrate on the president’s doorstep.
Reduce your dependency on oil and oil-based products. Simplify your life.
"Live simply so others may simply live."

We all have the dreaded experience of being asked by someone who is not
such a close friend, to help them move. I am going to presume to ask you to
help me move. Help me move the world closer to peace. Help the countless
people working in the vineyard of nonviolence in this move. Sometimes the
task is arduous, and we have to sacrifice a great deal; sometimes the move
is joyous, and we revel in companionship, love, and the reward of each baby
step taken and every small victory celebrated. However, the movement is
always sacred and more urgent than ever.

3,000 dead! So who’s counting? I can guarantee that there is a dear
loved one of a soldier somewhere holding his or breath, praying that the
soldier doesn’t become "just a number" to Tony Snow or another dollar in the
blood bank to the war profiteers.

3,000 dead. I can virtually guarantee who is not counting: Bloody
George, who readily admits that he gets a good night’s sleep every night,
while he has condemned millions of people all over the world to agonizing
nights of intensely worried or anguished insomnia. Why should Bloody George
lose sleep? War business is booming, and his own children are safely
surrounded by the Secret Service. I can never remember a time when peace has
been so absent, yet so urgent.

Won’t you do one thing every day to help prevent the next thousand
Americans and next one hundred thousand Iraqis? Please?

[In Search of Peace is a series of reflections on Cindy’s journey toward
true and lasting peace. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan,
who was killed in Bush’s war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder
and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and the Camp Casey Peace
Institute. She is the author of three books; the most recent is Peace Mom: A
Mother’s Journey Through Heartache to Activism.]

Forum posts

  • How many people died in American cities due to homocide during the Iraq war? Our soldiers are proud of their mission, and do not want us ot leave. Leaving Iraq will undoubtedly create a vaccuum and a renewed vigor of confidence for the terrorists. It does not help anyone for people to be protesting the war at this time. Did we go to war under false circumstances? I think so. The truth of the matter is that any country who even sympathizes with terrorists needs to be dealt with as hostile. Irag is the first, who will be next?

    • "Our soldiers are proud of their mission, and do not want us ot leave."

      Really. Polls show a different result. See:

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12103.htm

      "It does not help anyone for people to be protesting the war at this time."

      How else is the war going to end? With no victory conditions set, it’s hard to anticipate our departure. And just who will guard the oil fields? Mercenaries, all 25,000 of them in Iraq, aren’t enough to secure the oil.

      If the war were actually accomplishing something, we could perhaps tolerate its continuation, theoretically. But back here on Planet Earth, the Iraq War is killing thousands. The death rate accelerates as the conflict drags on.

      Protesting is the only way to end this war. Until Americans are drafted, resistance is not as widespread, which is a sociological requirement for persistent war. If the war doesn’t affect American lives, it stays out of the the public conscious. Cindy Sheehan had the unfortunate experience of being one of those affected by Bush’s war. Rather than sitting back and doing nothing to prevent other mothers from sharing her fate, she’s protested the war.

      And about terrorists: there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq until we invaded. Like the war on drugs, the terror war is about extending governmental power over the individual. It has no end, as the violence the war creates (terror inflicted by the State) engenders more terror in response. It’s a win-win for mil-ind complex and Right-wing ultranational militarists. For as long as war drags on, the more they can make off people’s suffering and the more our foreign policies can be bent to serve the interests of colonialism.

      Help stop the war or you will be victimized by the State in its endless quest for power.

    • A smart reasonable person should be the first to realize a mistake when there is one,to continue in that wrong path even when you know is wrong is tantamount to stupidity. This war is very wrong,very contrapuductive in all ways,and has brought out the very worst in Americansthose blind enough to support it,examples: War profiteers, abuses of human rightslike torture in Abu Graigh prisson, undescriminated killings,not to mention the more than 3000 soldiers that have given their lives in a wrong war, So the smart thing to do is to get out and let the UN send an international peace keeping force as we get out of that mess we created. YES ABANDON IRAQ?? to whom?? We were not asked to come in, we lied to go in, so YES lets GET OUT and leave IRAQ to IRAQUIS not matter waht happens.

      sincerely Luminosso

    • Please pass this note on to Cindy Sheedan;

      Cindy Sheehan,, well now being that her son did ’2’ tours it suggest that he would ’not’ be very proud of her. "Mercenaries" great since of American pride,,I guess.

      During ’Peace Time’ (If ever we had it) we lose 950 men and women per year on average.

      After 5 years the ratio is well in gear to suggesting we are doing a good job to a very hard problem.

      Cindy Sheehan is a drop backward even //further// of Jane Fonda, never really done much for her country other than bitch about it. Maybe a little self discipline would help but its gone just to far for her now, as she is what we use to call in battle ’All IN’.

      In Vietnam their was 1 KIA every 16 seconds this war is a far cry from that, please don’t even compare it with the Korea or WW2 wars, where we had 452,000 MIA’s in W2.

      No we can also mention something, such as the El Salvador wars 75-77 (This was my conflict). Somewhere from 500-800K South Americas lost their lives in this Civil war. This today is not even mention much in history today,, (Carter was our commander back then). And we in the field never even heard a thing from him. Oh forgot we too were not suppose to be there.

      Victory what’s that.. you as well as many others do not know what the word means because most today such as Cindy Sheehan believes Peace ’just happens’ or just takes place by Gods will.

      She is one of the most ’hurtful persons" I have seen in a long time, and in the end when its over, and yes Wars do end as this one will (study the 5 C continuum of war). Cindy will be come just another dead person inside not having a nation to love, because its that respect she has thrown away for fame and some fortune.

      You will find her in the end, hating everything that’s does not agree with her, history is full of them. You can even see in this writing here (if she wrote it at all) the Media is now her enemy and a long pass ex president. Funny how Yogi Berra came into this place, I play ball in school with his son Dale and my father today still bowls with Yogi sometimes. Yogi hit Ohma beach in W2 doest talk about it much as all of us in combat never do. I can tell you one thing Yogi would not give her the time of day.

      "Inept leaders" well Cindy what makes you an expert on combat we should just all roll over and play your way because of your dead son. You know better...as ’you’ think. but you know what? Many others have lost much more than dead sons in conflict’s and wars , some have lost entire families as they did in El Salvador and we stop it from getting a lot worst.

      Cindy would have let Hitler become the leader of the entire world, she would have never done a thing to people like Saddam Hussein, just maybe if it were possible she could live in Saddam Hussein’s world with her son and see just how long she and her son would have lasted without America interfering.

      Grow up and I hope she reads this, because ’your son’ would be ashamed of you as to what you have done to his name.

      We all get our 15 minutes// Andy.

    • And who are the terrorist, that is what I want to know,,,??? Do you know how to think for yourself, you sound like the rest of the fools!!!

  • This war is an illegal (unlawful) war. There isn’t a man or woman with any common sense that doesn’t know how the freedoms are being taken away through the propaganda and FEAR pitched by the new media. All evidence shows that 9-11 was allowed to happen and was used to push the efforts for the illegal war. The above poster is out of touch with reality. With a son, and friends who have children, in the war you would know that the troops are not backing the war. The polls indicate that the troops do not back the war. Our forefathers warned that is you choose safety over freedom, you will loose both. Wake up and get real.

    • I have a question to Cindy,WTF was your son doing in the military in the first place? Did he expect to have free education,free food and no bullets to the body? He joined the military of his own choice.Sorry Cindy,although i don’t agree with the wars,but i don’t feel sorry for you.

    • I do not think Cindy needs your sympathy, at least she is speaking up, for AMERICA.
      For what AMERICA was all about at one glorious time. Geroge and Cheney are traitors,
      We have a blood thirsty regime running our country, making you pay taxes, over and over again in you daily lives. They use your money to wage hell on earth.
      These vampires are greedy, sinister lucifarians. Skull and Bones, Freemasons, etc.
      Hillary is one of them,,,, The U.S. needs to dismember the Federal government ,, as it is next in line,,, china first,, with corrupt dasterdly deeds.