I really shouldn't take the bait, but if you read three of the stories out of 100 on Google you would feel rather tempted to predict that the symbolism behind this madness will bring new policies dealing with Iraq ... I can recall seeing at least a dozen dead Iraqis in pictures from the paper or in news magazines. Like the grey, bloated tsunami victims mentioned above, these bodies did not have the benefit of a jacket over their heads. Their dusty faces were caked with sand and fully visible. Three corpses lie in a river
Some see Andres Raya, shot dead after killing an officer, as war victim. Others claim gang link. It was a simple burial, with no military honors and no 21-gun salute. The 19-year-old Marine corporal died in a gun battle with police in his hometown of Ceres in Stanislaus County Sunday. Turning Point of Iraq War Too Close to the Skin of Homeland.
Andres Raya had a U.S. Marines sticker and a cross on his bedroom door -- symbols that family friends said reflected his dedication to his country and his community.
But the teenager who wanted to become a firefighter in his small town, and work alongside police officers, shot and killed one officer and injured another -- images recorded by a convenience store camera.
For a kid who wanted to grow up a hero, Andres Raya's life ended in the worst possible way.
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Beyond the Manger: Unbearable Strangeness of Evil
Christopher Dawson wrote just before the World War II in The Catholic Attitude: It to War has been the fault of both pacifism and liberalism in the past that they have ignored the immense burden of inherited evil under which society and civilization labour and have planned an imaginary world for an impossible humanity. We must recognize that we are living in an imperfect world in which human and superhuman forces of evil are at work and so long as those forces affect the political behaviour of mankind there can be no hope of abiding peace.
Marjorie Suchocki noted that original sin "is the grip the past has upon us." We live under an immense burden of inherited evil. The sins of the fathers (and mothers) really are passed down from generation to generation. And each generation adds its own. In classical Christian terminology, this is the taint of original sin.
• Boys Don't Cry: The burden of inherited evil [Are All Sins Equal? Theologian J.I. Packer Says No, And He's Right! ]
• · Mahmoud Abbas has been elected President of the Palestine Authority to succeed Yasir Arafat. Will this make any difference? Is the creation of a Palestinian state nearer? Are the possibilities of an Israeli-Palestine agreement nearer? Many hope so, but the chances are thin. Life After Arafat
• · · Yesterday's genius, today's fool, tomorrow's what? Reading the pages of foreign-policy journals, between the long tracts on Bush's "failures" and neoconservative "arrogance," one encounters mostly predictions of defeat and calls for phased withdrawal — always with resounding criticism of the American "botched" occupation.Triangulating the War ; [No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason Not In Our Name statement ]
• · · · As the world political configuration moves toward multipolarity, each regional power center is constrained to push for the greatest reach that it can achieve in its geographical area until a stable configuration emerges. Is post cold war development dead? We are reminded of a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which a wizened old man is offered to the collector of dead bodies in plague-ridden London. "I'm not dead," the geezer wheezes. "I'm getting better!" Replies the hulking young man trying to give him away, "You're not fooling anyone, you know. You'll be stone dead in a moment." Croatia Enters a Problematic Phase of Development
• · · · · The lone undercover agent in a sting that sent dozens of black people to prison on bogus drug charges in Tulia was convicted today of one of two perjury counts: Tom Coleman; [28 Prisoners from Iraq's Abu Ghraib escape]
• · · · · · If we give up our lawn mower races, the terrorists will have won. Provisional Sinn Fein condemns the arms trade Report on arms exports reveal Irish complicity in trade