Ceremony honors Iraq war casualties Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa

Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa 23, of Tuba City, Arizona.
Killed in action after her convoy was ambushed in Iraq on March 23, 2003. She was assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas.


BY PAM M. SMITH, STAFF WRITER
Mar 18, 2005

In a solemn commemoration starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, names of U.S. servicemen and women killed since the beginning of U.S.-led invasion of Iraq will be read at Sanguinetti Memorial Park, 8th Avenue and 22nd Street.

Ed Snook, organizer of the Yuma event, said, "(Saturday) is the second anniversary of the war's beginning. Of the 36 service personnel listed, one of the very first was Lance Cpl. Michael Jason Williams, of Yuma, who was killed on March 23, 2003. On the same date, Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, of Tuba City, was the first Native American woman to die in the war.
"Sgt. Fernando Padilla-Ramirez of San Luis, Ariz., died on March 28, 2003."

The commemoration, which is being repeated around the nation, is open to the public.

Snook said the commemoration is sponsored by the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, a nonprofit, nonpartisan charity that provides need-based financial support to U.S. service personnel who have been wounded in the service of our nation's ongoing wars and their families.
http://sun.yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_15477.php


http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/piestewaloriann.html

There's a difference.

And their OILY WAR for corporate profits. Cheney and Wolfman and the rest of the NeoCons could care less about them.

It's so appalling as to challenge comprehension. :puke:

By Mark Benjamin

March 8, 2005 | In January 2000, then Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Henry Shelton told an audience at Harvard that before committing troops, politicians should make sure a war can pass what he called the "Dover test," so named for the Air Force base in Delaware where fallen soldiers' coffins return. Shelton said politicians must weigh military actions against whether the public is "prepared for the sight of our most precious resource coming home in flag-draped caskets."

It's widely known that on the eve of the Iraq invasion in 2003, the Bush administration moved to defy the math and enforced a ban on photographs of the caskets arriving at Dover, or at any other military bases. But few realize that it seems to be pursuing the same strategy with the wounded, who are far more numerous. Since 9/11, the Pentagon's Transportation Command has medevaced 24,772 patients from battlefields, mostly from Iraq. But two years after the invasion of Iraq, images of wounded troops arriving in the United States are almost as hard to find as pictures of caskets from Dover. That's because all the transport is done literally in the dark, and in most cases, photos are banned.


Ralph Begleiter, a journalism professor at the University of Delaware and a former CNN world affairs correspondent who has filed a suit to force the Pentagon to release photographs and video of the caskets arriving at Dover, said news images of wounded American soldiers have been "extremely scarce." Wounded soldiers, like caskets, mostly show up in the news only after they arrive back in their hometowns. Begleiter said the Pentagon has tried to minimize public access to images and information that might drain Americans' tolerance for the war. "I think the Pentagon is taking steps to minimize the exposure of the costs of war," said Begleiter. "Of course they are."

A Salon investigation has found that flights carrying the wounded arrive in the United States only at night. And the military is hard-pressed to explain why. In a series of interviews, officials at the Pentagon's Air Mobility Command, which manages all the evacuations, refused to talk on the record to explain the nighttime flights, or to clarify discrepancies in their off-the-record explanations of why the flights arrive when they do. In a written statement, the command said that "operational restrictions" at a runway near the military's main hospital in Germany, where wounded from Iraq are brought first, affect the timing of flights. The command also attempted to explain the flight schedule by saying doctors in Germany need plenty of time to stabilize patients before they fly to the United States.

more
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/08/night_flights/

The "Rest of the World" doesn't care about how America is trying to bring Democracy and Freedom to the rest of us. What we really really care about is your incredible consumption of "Resources". Now we know,it is very important to ensure that all American's are kept in the way that they are accustomed to, for at least, since the second world war. American's voted for the "Nero-Crazies" and the "Rest of the World" is quite happy to watch America squirm in its version of "Democracy" You have a "volunteer" army like all Anglo-Saxon counteries! Unless you introduce the "Draft" you can only "kill" so many of the 5.7 billion Non-American's. One day, "What's the last chapter of the bible called". might actually happen. Of course American "Nuke's" are better. So American's will survive to re-populate the Earth. LOL America actually lives in a "fantasy" world!

Regardless of the impeachment-worthy reason they were sent on their missions, I would not deny them the title of "heroes," and as well consider them "sacrifices" -- in that their lives were sacrificed not to "spread democracy" as we all know, but for Bush's own personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein and PNAC's oil-mongering, world-domination roadmap.

I know it sounds terrible but here in OZ, American deaths are "cheered" quitely, in case we get arrested for "crimes against "The Bush Gang". All OZ deaths are also "Cheered" for as well. But our Government keeps telling us that only 1 has died in Iraq and 1 has died in Afghanistan, when quite a lot of Oz people know the truth. In OZ we don't really care how your version of "Democracy" panend out. The real "US patriots" lost, so we have to move on. The whole world knows that it is very hard for Democrats to win in America. You have a system where Montana has nearly as many voting rights as Massach(This is the worse state to spell). America has the furthest democratic system away from "Democracy" that you can get in the non "Communist" world". The rest of us are very aware of America's version of "Freedom & Democracy". Would you please ask "The Bush Gang" to please stop "Killing us". It would be greatly appreciated.

Oz,

Perhaps I'm wrong, but you seem to be coming at me from a perspective of perceiving I'm somehow supportive of the brutal, criminal invasion of Iraq perpetrated by Bushco. For the record, I've opposed everything Bush, with my money, time and protests, including his arrogant, psychopathic PNAC policies, since he started squatting in the White House.

My point is this, not knowing the individual circumstance of how each of these troops have died (and I'm not only referring to American troops, but also to those troops tragically called into action because their leaders decided to get chummy with the Shrub using other people's lives), I can't agree to a blanket statement they weren't heroes in various aspects of the word.

As for cheering the death of anyone, it's just not something that works for me, and I've taken one or two frothing rants here in this forum for that position....