American Dead Memorial at Santa Monica

[spiritman51]

I just went down to Santa Monica, California and went walking on the Beach and visited the Santa Monica Pier. It was another beautiful sunny California day with a beautiful blue sky and 70 degrees F. Some "Peace Vets" have made a large display on the beach called, "Arlington West" (Arlington Cemetary is the primary Military Cemetary in Washington DC). The Peace Vets set up crosses for each of the American dead . As of today, so far in Iraq, 1060 American military have died and 7,500 + have been wounded. They had a lot of pictures and names of the dead. It was quite moving. No political statements. One sign said if they counted all the Iraqi dead they could fill the beach. This beach is huge. I know the statement was a hyperbolic one. Also I didn't see any of the so called "Coalition" military dead commemerated, but it was very crowded and I only walked by....I pray for peace in the Middle East and for the killing to stop.

[I, Brian]

That sounds like a good memorial message - it's not often the dead are able to speak for themselves.