through a coincidence

i became friends with a member of our deployed troops in iraq. she is career military and has been all over the world, more than once. i 'met' her while she was serving in iraq. i started up a correspondence with her (both snail mail and emails) and on occasion send a care package. i just knitted her up some lovely wrist warmers and a matching scarf. i have never once told her about how i feel about the iraq war. she (nor anyone else i correspond with that is over there), don't need to hear how i feel about them HAVING to be there. i DO tell them we all thank them for their service. we appreciate all they are doing. i say it and i mean it. i DO thank them. i DO keep them in my thoughts and prayers daily. them, their friends and family (yes, i pray. even though i am rather pagan/wiccan/stregha, i pray. guess that comes from being raised catholic.)

she was VERY recently sent to sudan for a bit. i will be keeping a good thought and prayer out for her AND the people there.

please don't ever forget what is happening in THAT region either

A Darfur Village Bears Up Under Janjaweed Yoke


By Stephanie McCrummen Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, March 24, 2007; Page A01
KUTERI, Sudan -- The men with rifles lounged on a carpet in the sand. The five of them had come to the village that morning from the crumble of mountains nearby, and now the afternoon sun was blasting. Some sipped tea.
Since arriving four years ago in a herd of horses and camels and guns, the militiamen known as Janjaweed have killed several of the 500 people who live here, villagers said, beaten others and generally menaced the population into believing that their village could be destroyed at any moment, like hundreds of others across the Darfur region of western Sudan...............

............At least 450,000 people have died from disease and violence in the conflict, and more than 2.5 million -- around half the area's entire population -- have fled to vast displacement camps whose numbers continue to swell.............