Marine Lance Cpl. Brent E. Beeler

[Philosoraptor]

A Marine Honor Guard carries the casket containing the remains of Marine Lance Cpl. Brent E. Beeler out of the church following Beeler's funeral in Jackson, Michigan December 19, 2006. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

[Monkeyman]

1. RIP

[Philosoraptor]

2. So many Christmas's & Ramadan's, ruined forever

[Philosoraptor]

3. ----------

[Swamp Rat]

4. I was watching the NEWSHOUR with Jim Lehrer last night

It ended with photos of young kids who were recently killed. :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[jwirr]

5. The News Hour has been doing that from the very beginning. One

of the few moments of truth today. I give them a lot of credit for keeping the deaths in the news because if there were not sites like theirs we could just about forget there is a war going on. I liked it better during the Vietnam War - at least we knew what we were being asked to support.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. Buscho would much rather they remain faceless statistics, this won't do at all!

[RamboLiberal]

6. Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Clark

Friends and family of Ladue Marine Matt Clark's watch as his casket carried into the Cathedral Basilica for his funeral this morning.

In Pittsburgh a lot of liberal host Lynn Cullen's listeners have been grieving all week for this 22 year old Marine. He was dating Lynn's niece Leah and through Lynn and her sister Susan(Leah's mom) we had so gotten to know Matt we began to think of him as "our Marine". Semper Fi Matt.

Radio talk show host Lynn Cullen spoke with the Post-Gazette Wednesday about her emotional broadcast last week on the death of her niece Leah Nuetzel's boyfriend, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Clark.

"I think everybody has their job, and you journalists are supposed to remove yourselves emotionally, generally," she said. "I never made much of a journalist because it was very hard for me to do that, and as a talk show host I don't remove myself. I want to connect, intellectually, emotionally and mostly, honestly."

She said she has received nearly a hundred positive emails and letters from folks who listened to her tearful broadcast last week.

As she describes the aftermath of Cpl. Clark's death, her voice trembles as it did that day.

"I talk about this war all the time; I've been opposed to it since day one, since before day one. Then this wonderful, wonderful young man takes me closer to it than I'd ever want to be. It's the most hopeless feeling you can have."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06356/748115-51.stm

[Rex]

7. RIP Marine

:cry:

[jberryhill]

8. We can't afford to do this

We NEED these bright, motivated, patriotic, disciplined and hardworking young men and women in our communities.

[Philosoraptor]

9. --------

[Philosoraptor]

10. Apparently there is a disastrous war going on.

Most folks haven't discovered it yet.

[Philosoraptor]

12. -----------

[WritersBlock]

13. I didn't see George W Bush in that picture.

Oh, right... I forgot.

He doesn't attend military funerals.

Might mess with his beautiful mind.

After all, he's only the "commander-in-chief" who sent that kid to his death.

But I guess funerals aren't near as much fun as the flight decks, eh Dubs?



May Corporal Beeler and his fallen brothers and sisters rest in peace.

[Tansy_Gold]

14. I always have so many mixed feelings because this war is

so unnecessary, so brutal, so awful. No war is good, but this one seems worse than usual.

And as a corollary of that hatred for the war, I sometimes have a reluctance to "support the troops" because they are, after all, the instrument of this war. It is they who do the killing, the bombing, the shooting, yes the raping and pillaging and torturing too.

But that's the faceless side of them. It's almost a reflection of the way they "demonize" the enemy, or the nameless, faceless Iraqis whom we so rarely ever meet as individuals.

Like all those Iraqis, like Sharbat Gul (IIRC) the Afghan girl from the National Geographic cover, like Pat Tillman, each and every one of these "deaths" was first a life. It's the life that's important, the life that's lost. And the names make them individuals, make them real, make them human rather than just a statistic.

Every family affected will grieve. But we have all suffered the loss.

Peace to all who mourn in this season of joy. Peace to all of us.

Tansy Gold