The Power of Fear and Other News

This from Alternet is an excellent read with regard to U.S. strategy in Iraq.

This from the New York Times provides a detailed recounting of what appears to be the outright murder of an unarmed man in Fallujah. Ah, war is hell and Dubya seems to grow, to become more potent in the throws if this horrific mess in Iraq.

And, this from Mark Twain's, The War Prayer:

O Lord our God,
help us
to tear thier soldiers
to bloody shreds
with our shells;

help us
to cover their smiling fields
with the pale forms of their patriot dead;

help us
to drown the thunder
of the guns
with the shrieks
of their wounded,
writhing in pain;

help us
to lay waste
their humble homes
with a hurricane of fire;

help us
to wring the hearts
of their unoffending widows
with unaviling grief;

help us
to turn them out roofless
with their little children
to wander unfriended
the wastes
of their desolated land

in rags and hunger
and thirst,
sports of the sun flames
of summer
and the icy winds
of winter...

...for our sakes
who adore Thee, Lord,

blast their hopes,
blight their lives,
protract their bitter pilgrimage,
make heavy their steps,
water their way with tears,
stain the white snow
with the blood
of their wounded feet!

We ask it,
in the spirit of love,
of Him Who is the Source of Love,

and Who is the ever-faithful
refuge and friend
of all that are sore beset

and seek His aid
with humble and contrite hearts.

Amen.