...and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.

                                                                                       

THEY SERVED LONGER than any other unit in Iraq -- active or reserve. It was October 2005 when the more than 2,000 National Guardsmen left their Minnesota homes, returning only late this summer.

Some left their jobs, some left their farms, and some left their schools. They had answered the call to serve and so for for nearly two years they missed births and birthdays, anniversaries and school plays, Christmas mornings and Thanksgiving dinners.

In place of these everyday joys, they patrolled in 120-degree heat, ate meals ready-to-serve, went without showers for days at a time, and wondered if each day could be their last.

Along the way they saw comrades fall -- some quite young -- who would never again get an email from home, feel the warm embrace of a friend, or see the smile of a child.

And when they returned they asked for no special treatment, just what was due, only to find they had been purposely left one day short...

I DON'T NEED this. I have to go out of town today, and time is short.

But then, I run into a story that says the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is going to be addressing 'a super-secret, conservative policy group in Utah' today.

AND NO PUBLIC OR PRESS ALLOWED.

And the the guy who founded it is the co-author of the LEFT BEHIND books.

AND NO PUBLIC OR PRESS ALLOWED.

In fact, after that the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES will be appearing at 'fund raisers' in California, Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming.

AND NO PUBLIC OR PRESS ALLOWED.

Have we really become so blase that the number two elected official in the most powerful country on earth can travel around giving secret speeches to a group hoping for Armageddon and no one cares? Can it really be that progressives can't fathom the implications, can't grasp the rape of democracy this unquestioned secrecy represents?

WHY isn't this a top diary? Where's the front page coverage?

Such are the searching sorrows
This royal palace knows,
While through the streets of Argos
Grief yet more grievous grows

They sent forth men to battle
But no such men return,
And home, to claim their welcome,
Come ashes in an urn

--Aeschylus

AUGUST'S FINAL ROLL CALL:

These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,
Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth.
The years had given them kindness. Dawn was theirs,
And sunset, and the colours of the earth.

These had seen movement, and heard music; known
Slumber and waking; loved; gone proudly friended;
Felt the quick stir of wonder; sat alone;
Touched flowers and furs and cheeks. All this, now ended.

-- Rupert Brooke

JULY'S FINAL ROLL CALL:

IT MAY SEEM A SMALL THING to most. A soccer game played half way round the world. So unimportant, it can't be found on American T.V.

But to a country savaged by years of invaders and civil war, there in the ancient land between two rivers where now even the water is putrid with death... this game was the rarest of gifts: ninety minutes of peace.

Rarer still, it was ninety minutes of hope.

'This is a very modest thing we can give to our people,' said the captain before the game.

Added the coach: 'We have to play to be a champion and we hope no one dies. This is what we wish.'

And today the Iraqi people got that hope and that wish, when their team -- made up of Sunni, Shia and Kurd -- won the championship in the Asian Cup Finals... their first championship ever.

The Iraqis finally have their field of dreams... but one watered with a million anguished tears.

=====================
This diary by Spread the Word: Iraq-Nam, a daily blog on Iraq.

Sons of the thief, sons of the saint
Who is the child with no complaint
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own
The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears
The cries at night, the nightmare fears
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own...

-- Jaques Brel

JUNE'S FINAL ROLL CALL:

             

ITEM: About 10,000 soldiers are involved in Arrowhead Ripper, making it one of the largest military operations since the war began more than four years ago. It is focused around the city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The offensive began under cover of darkness "with a quickstrike nighttime air assault," a U.S. military statement said.

...but who speaks for the children of Baqubah, how not to be caught underneath?

.          

Breaking from the NY Times:

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies

With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.

.                

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods

-- Thomas Babington Macaulay

MAY'S FINAL ROLL CALL:

.                

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods

-- Thomas Babington Macaulay

MAY'S FINAL ROLL CALL:

JONATHAN MARKHAM KNEW the protocol for Army funerals. The 22 year-old corporal had received the honor of serving on a burial detail at the Dallas Fort-Worth National Cemetery. And so he knew not only how it was done, but had done it himself...

The flag drapes the casket to honor the memory of the fallen's service, placed so that the blue field with stars is at the head and over the left shoulder of the deceased.

Taps is played, and then the flag carefully folded into the symbolic tri-cornered shape. The flag folds 13 times on the triangles, representing the original American colonies in its folds and the three-cornered hat worn by the Patriots in its final shape. When folded, only a blue field with stars is seen.

The flag is then presented to the grieving. In the Army the presenter says, "This flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation and the United States Army as a token of appreciation for your loved one's honorable and faithful service".

'On behalf of a grateful nation'. Perhaps those were the words that had Cpl Markham thinking, and telling his wife his wishes.

THIS DIARY IS THE STORY OF TWO SOLDIERS, friends brought together by chance of war, and how one of them died, and of the lies we sometimes tell to each other, and to ourselves.

MICHAEL FRANK had been born in Texas at the start of the seventies, but could have called himself a Mainer, Tennesseean, Washingtonian, South Dakotan, Montanan or even a Buckeye. His father was a Navy pilot for 10 years, then a dentist in the Air Force... so Michael moved wherever his dad was assigned.

And coming from a military family, and knowing little else but military life, it was probably inevitable that he go straight into the military as soon as he graduated high school in 1988. And military service was good to him: he spent his 4 years serving in Hawaii.

For the movie-star-handsome top athlete in the prime of life, it must have been paradise...

IT WAS LATE LAST MONTH that Joseph Anzack's family was told that he had been killed in Iraq. It had started as a rumor, and led to farewell postings on MySpace and even a banner at the high school in honor of the 20 year-old former football star.

The panicked family called the Army, and the Army honorably went so far as to arrange a call home for Pfc. Anzack. Maybe in the need to grasp at the nearest thing to being together again, he and his dad made plans...

[Promoted from the Diaries - MB]

IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME I POST stories of the fallen now: I'm accused of being a 'spammer'.

My blog hosts at Blogger. They have algorithms to detect what they call 'spam blogs' -- those that have too many posts or posts that come in too rapid succession. And as I said, at my blog I post stories of the fallen -- the deaths,  the remembrances, the memorials, the funerals.

I always post these at the end of the day, after the news and perspectives. Sometimes I've had up to thirty deaths, remembrances, funerals, etc. to post in a single evening. And so Blogger sees my numerous posts made in rapid succession, and thinks spam.

Then loud their warlike anger cried
As eagles cry, that wild with grief
Of robbed nest, wing and sail
Oar the airy waves of some steep mountside, and wail
Their wasted toil, their wounded pride

-- Aeschylus

APRIL'S FINAL ROLL CALL:

SOMETIMES A COUPLE of paragraphs tell the whole story:

Army Sgt. 1st Class James Connell Jr. knew he wasn't coming home from Iraq.

The night before he left his parents' home in Tennessee two weeks ago, he told one of his brothers just that. Then Connell, 40, asked his brother to take care of his kids.

James Connell was one of the four soldiers slain in Saturday's ambush in Mahmudiyah, where an intensive search for 3 remaining captured soldiers is entering its fifth day.

               

Above: U.S. troops have been conducting weapons searches in Mahmudiyah for months, as in this March 4 army photo

MOST EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS the grim news: today in Mahmudiyah an attack on 7 U.S. troops and an Iraqi interpreter has left 5 dead and 3 missing. But there may be a bigger story to come: the possibility of an Iranian link to the tragedy.

Although there were American/British grumblings about Iran supplying weapons and sophisticated roadside bombs going back at least a year, the American drumbeat about Iranian involvement has picked up significantly in volume and rhythm since February, with accusations and threats coming at various times from U.S. Intelligence chief McConnell, top U.S. commander General Petraeus, principal deputy assistant secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jim Jeffrey, U.S. military spokesman in Iraq General Caldwell, Commander for Southern Iraq Lynch, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Pace, and even President Bush...