Venus View

Evidence of atrocities mounts

24 innocent civilians murdered by US Marines

I am sick to death of this carnage. This bloody battle that has no end and takes innocent civilian lives is a blight on the history of this country. We have a bloody and terrible history starting with the Nations that were desecrated as the Europeans "settled" in land that was not theirs.

Abraham Lincoln ordered the execution of Native sons on the same day that he "freed" the slaves that built New York City and many other altars to white men's lust for wealth and power. The blood of the African slaves who died on the boats after they were kidnapped, who died from diseases that were foreign to their immune systems, that died from malnutrition, exposure, and just plain exhaustion moves me to write something, anything, to cry out against this madness.

The bloodletting that brought these and many other stains on our nation's past should be just that - the past. But My Lai has been revisited in Haditha, and the death march drones on, unencumbered by such niceties as the Geneva Convention. Aggreessive war and disdain for human lives becomes a part of our existence once again, as it did during the Vietnam War of my childhood.

We have learned nothing.

As I turned my TV on to "Nightline" as is my custom every night as I prepare for another night's rest, the scenes shown echoed those that one might see on "American Justice" or other forensic fare. The blood spatter, the howls of grief, the bodies, the destruction - all weigh heavily on my psyche as I identify with the victims and their families. Human beings, flesh and blood innocents who did nothing to deserve this horrible end.

Have we lost all sense of humanity? Are we headed for a future that only values human life *before* birth?

I am sick and tired, despondent at the prospect that there may be nothing we can do, at least not at this moment. The leadership vacuum has never been so obvious as it has now. Hindsight of Marine Generals notwithstanding, I burn a candle this night for the people who are victimized by the war on Iraq.