Did you see Sr. Joan Chittister's column at Common Dreams?

[DemBones DemBones]

It was posted in GD and when I clicked the link I learned it was originally at the National Catholic Reporter, so I went there and found she wrote two columns for Inauguration week. They are both worth reading, and everyone should see the photos to which she refers in the column "What the Rest of the World Watched on Inauguration Day." One is affecting Europeans much like people were affected by the photo of the littlel Vietnamese girl covered with napalm and running screaming down a road. And we are apparently not being shown any of the photos here.

Go here to see one of the photos, read part of the column, and get links to the rest -- and give it a kick because it's not "caught on" yet:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3023024


And here's the first part of another column:


Questions for an inauguration

By Joan Chittister, OSB


"Try to look surprised."

"The official word, according to the report of the Iraq Survey Group released last week, is that the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq is over. Why? Because, as most of the world knew at the outset of the debacle, Iraq didn't have any. So much for the satellite photo of one warehouse with a tractor trailer parked behind it on which we based our pathetic little case for so-called "pre-emptive" war -- and on international television, no less. Or, to put it another way, contrast this presentation of materials to the photos taken from outer space during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962."

"Forty years ago we could count every Russian missile in every pile on Cuban soil. Now, on the brink of mass invasion of another country, there was nothing to count and nothing to see. (If you're inclined to be disappointed that, contrary to popular opinion, our photographic technology has not been getting better as time goes on, try to remember that in a case like this it can be very difficult to take pictures of what isn't there.)"

"George Bush's only response to the complete obliteration of his excuse for the invasion of Iraq is a limp and pathetic remark. Not a regret. Not an apology. Not a resolve never to engage in such mindless warmaking again. Instead, in response to the families of the over 1,300 dead US soldiers who went there to destroy those "weapons" and the over 100,000 dead Iraqis who paid the price for that "mistake," the only thing the president could think to say was "Isn't the world better off without Saddam Hussein?""

more. . .

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/fwis/fw012005.htm

***

In my experience, Benedictine sisters are very tough-minded women, so it's not surprising to see Sister Joan speaking out against the Bush** war. I'm pleased to see she writes regularly for the NCR; I'll be checking back for more of her writing.

[Maeve]

1. Thanks for posting this

The second article includes an updating the monetary "cost of the war in Iraq"--$152 BILLION and counting.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. I'm glad you mentioned that because I forgot to -- it updates as

you're watching, changing numbers quite quickly. A useful resource.