Something went today for me. SOmething structurally snapped.

The one that catches me is the front one on the Yahoo set–Allah fronts it on his page–look at the mother’s face as she strokes her daughters face–its a universal look of love and warmth. You can feel her fingers play across her skin, hear the soft song she sings–some lullaby, a favorite one, the one that’s always calmed her down before. The wrist is important for the child–mom’s soap or perfume–heightens the sense that they are fully protected by the mother, that nothing will harm them.

The Mother’s cocked neck, the saucer eyes…this is a mother/child vignette played out millions of times daily across the globe. It unites us as a race: no matter what divides us, all children seek to be comforted and all mother seek to comfort.

The child in this photo is dead.

Her skin is starting to bloat and the color is gone as the blood drains away and begins to rot. SHe was executed on her back–naked–in a gym in her school in the blinding heat of the SOuthern Russian late summer. She had had no water for nearly two days, so the onset of livor mortis is additionally distorted by the initial stages of dehydration. If the bullet that entered into her did not cause parastolic shock at a suitable trajectory–then she would likely have been beaten with rifle butts until the blunt trauma to her cranium ended her ability to scream.

These were her last minutes on earth. Naked, wracked by hunger and fear, in a dark and squalid gymnasium with her parents a very far 500 yeards away. There were no adults to comfort her and the men and women who killed her did not speak her language.

She would have obeyed every command barked at her, as given her age, she would only wish to obey an adult. Despite a level of fear that we are simply unable to model, it is clear that when asked to lie down for the shot–and beating–that would kill her in an orderly, methodical way, she did so.

She did what six year olds do the world over: she waited her turn.

I understand none of this; cannot comprehend the nude savagery that was last reared in such a fashion during the holocaust.

ALl I understand is the look on the mothers face, doing the only thing that she can do anymore.

The world has changed for us, even more clearly than 9-11. I do not beleive notions of alliances anymore. Their is only living and dying against such a foe, but there is not even that, really. Winning is living only if these people die.