SURGE Update: US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 646

[tekisui]

Source: AP

As of Tuesday, July 7, 2009, at least 646 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Of those, the military reports 479 were killed by hostile action.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jmVICVPpmVGLrJ2f3c53jVXJy9vQD999V2700

[Mari333]

1. knr for the occupation that belongs to Bama now

and every drop of blood shed soldier or civilian. for nothing.

[tekisui]

2. At least 40 dead in Pakistan strike today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6013486&mesg_id=6013486

[Tim01]

3. I still like your avatar, btw.

I'm getting back into my studies of him and others now.

[tekisui]

5. Please Call Me by My True Names--Thich Nhat Hahn

Please Call Me by My True Names

I have a poem for you. This poem is about three of us.
The first is a twelve-year-old girl, one of the boat
people crossing the Gulf of Siam. She was raped by a
sea pirate, and after that she threw herself into the
sea. The second person is the sea pirate, who was born
in a remote village in Thailand. And the third person
is me. I was very angry, of course. But I could not take
sides against the sea pirate. If I could have, it would
have been easier, but I couldn't. I realized that if I
had been born in his village and had lived a similar life
- economic, educational, and so on - it is likely that I
would now be that sea pirate. So it is not easy to take
sides. Out of suffering, I wrote this poem. It is called
"Please Call Me by My True Names," because I have many names,
and when you call me by any of them, I have to say, "Yes."

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow --
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.

[madrchsod]

4. we have the guns but no butter

it`s obama`s war..

[Loge23]

6. Insanity

If we are to shake our heads at Iraq - after the folly of Vietnam (not to mention the lies)- then what are we to make of Afghanistan?
Very few in the USA are paying any attention to this fiasco.
I'd bet that Putin takes some satisfaction in seeing us there, knowing that it's a bottomless pit.
Mr. President, I did not vote for you so that you would continue this insanity. I voted for you to end it. GET OUT NOW!!