Roadkill Journal

Reported by a number of sources, the group American Friends Service Committee https://www.afsc.org/2000/default.php has announced plans to commemorate a tragic yet all but certain event: The death of the 2,000th American soldier in Iraq. As of yesterday, the count is 1,996.

The Washington Post gives a fairly cogent account of the matter at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102300496_pf.html

There are as of this morning 326 events planned Nationwide. It is reasonable to expect the one in Washington D.C. will receive the most attention.

According to the Post, the event organizers in the Capitol plan to set a somber tone: "We ask that people do not bring signs or posters, just candles and perhaps pictures of soldiers," the notice for this event read. "No megaphones or speeches. Quiet mourning, prayer and song. No opportunities to offend or exclude."

Other events, such as the one to be held in our own State Capitol, Olympia, are self-described as "vigils."

But that is not how others are describing them: According to Little Green Footballs, Ghouls Plan "2000 Deaths" Parties!

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17954_Ghouls_Plan_2000_Deaths_Parties&only

To blogger Sagebrush, AFSC are "Haters Against the Troops." "The reason we're publicizing this is not to help the haters, but rather to call attention to this sickness."

http://sagebrush.blogspot.com/2005/10/haters-against-troops.html

Haters planning parties! Celebrations! 2000 down!

I for one have had enough of the war party's lying and abusing the troops!

For the moment, let's put aside that which has become established overwhelmingly: The justifications for the Iraq war were pure shit. The public was deliberately sold a fantasy case, a case made in the best Madison Avenue style to appeal to the guts and not the head. A war sold the same way one would sell a new TV soap.

Let's put aside the fact that public support for the war, once reported quite high, has evaporated as the truth has been revealed, and the overwhelmingly obvious conclusion which that fact leads to: The support would have never existed without the lies.

Forget it all. Forget the fact the anti-war faction has been proven correct.

Let's just talk about the troops and ask who are their real abusers?

War has always been draped in patriotism. Our wars, Britain's wars, Japan's wars, Germany's wars, everyone's wars. War: Patriots killing patriots.

Here in America, the fiasco of Vietnam created a determination in the hearts of many that such a senseless, goal-less, endless evil should never be suffered in silence again. Americans came to understand that not all calls to war, even when made by the Nation's leaders, were valid calls. Sober history taught many that the Nation's leaders can and often do mis-lead.

When this happens, the true patriots must stand opposed, as they have in this war.

And for that they are called ghouls and haters. The Rabid Right spares no fury. A lack of support for this damned war is deliberately twisted at all opportunities into a hatred of the troops and even America.

Their message is clear: We are America. No matter whether we are honest or dishonest, no matter whether we are a majority.

No matter if we are right or wrong. Side with us, or you are a troop-hating, treasonous ghoul... An America hater.

And here we are, hiding our failed quest behind the men and women of the armed forces. They are the human shields of our cause, and we are prepared to defend that cause to the last of their lives.

If they really supported the troops, if they really valued the sacrifice, they would fill the streets of this Nation's cities demanding an end, and demanding an accounting for all the deceit that has brought us to this pass.

If the troop's lives were more important to them than a damned agenda. But it's not.

2,000 down and surely more to go, in view of the obstinate refusal of the war party to accept the truth.

Who are the real ghouls?