October saw the highest number of U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan — including a local hero — since the American war there began eight years ago. A bigger crowd than usual came to the monthly commemoration of war dead in New Haven Monday.
Just two years ago, Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice — an ecumenical, statewide organization opposed to the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan—began the monthly vigils at the war memorial on Broadway in New Haven. They placed stones in a cairn, each inscribed with both U.S. military and Iraqi civilian casualties. About a year ago, as the war in Iraq wound down and the one in Afghanistan heated up, they began recording the American and civilian dead in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rabbi Herbert Brockman (pictured at the top of the story) of Hamden’s Congregation Mishkan Israel led the 15-minute service Monday evening. Vigilers numbered about 40, many of them from the synagogue; just a month ago, on Oct. 2, Captain Benjamin Sklaver was killed in action in Afghanistan. Click here for a story on his memorial service. He had grown up as an active member of Mishkan Israel, where his parents, Gary and Laura, are still active members.
Brockman said that one of their own was among the dead, but “each of them is a child, or a lover, a friend, a brother, a spouse” and left loved ones behind. He urged those listening, gathered in a tight circle around the cairn as traffic passed by and the full moon shone above in the mild night air, to pay tribute to all of them by building “a monument of love and recognition of what they stood for” rather than focusing on hatred or sadness.
He also prayed that countries would find a better way of resolving differences than sending their young people off to war.
According to a website that tracks military casualties, the total of U.S. servicemembers killed in Iraq since 2003 is 4,357; in Afghanistan since 2001, 911. Civilian casualties have been estimated variously between tens of thousands and several hundred thousand, mostly in Iraq.