The call finally came, my son left Fallujah and is on his way home. He has escaped with his life and not a scratch on his body, but has seen too much of the death and destruction in Iraq. I finally exhaled and realized what a burden I had been carrying around all of these months. Knowing this was about the time he was scheduled to leave I waited for our dear friend "Rummy" to use his back door draft to keep the Marines fighting in the civil war of Al Anbar Province.
The last patrol, as I learned from my son over the weekend, was 2 night patrols, which meant little or no sleep for the entire Company. These Marines were constantly out in the dark digging up IED's and finding "insurgents", only to discover the return of both the next morning. Fearful that those 2 last patrols could mean the worst possible nightmare for me, I held my breath. Then the email came. On the last day of their deployment a Lance Corporal in my son's platoon was killed. The email began with "By now you have heard, we have lost another Marine..." and continued, "What he talked the most about, though, was going home and getting married to his sweetheart."
All the military families who received this message had their hearts broken, I could hear them. What we all feared, happened to another son. A close friend of my son. In minutes, I received emails from all the military moms who have been on edge since the beginning of this deployment into the bowels of Fallujah. The tone was of hysteria, and horror for the family. I remained speechless and could not understand what made that IED explode and kill another Marine and not my son. They were only yards apart. That night my son packed his friend's belongings to be shipped home to his grieving family and fiancé.
How could this keep happening every single day to our families across this Country without the media, our Government and other citizens stomping into the streets in a complete outrage. Pain, suffering, fear, sleeplessness, and devastation are just the tip of the iceberg for soldiers and their families. What is this Country thinking? Or maybe not thinking at all. Iraq is a total unmitigated disaster, and will continue to be so.
How arrogant we are to even think we could force "democracy" down the throats of people from an ancient culture. How can we even allow this Government to mislead us into thinking the brut force of our military will win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. I realized that night when this Marine lost his life, Iraqi citizens had died also. Did those mothers receive emails of their sons' death? Or do they have to go out searching the war torn and blood-bathed streets looking through bodies. The pain we feel is the same. Iraqi citizens are not our enemies. We cannot send our children to fight and kill other children.
Feelings of happiness are not allowed to enter my heart, not yet. My son is coming home, but other sons are not. I feel guilt, remorse, sadness, anger and lots of pain. Lurking within all of these feelings is another, I am committed to driving this Administration from power and seeing to it that they all stand trial for war crimes. I plan on dedicating myself to this cause because in an old saying that my mother repeats to me many times: "There But For the Grace of God go I."
www.elainebrower.com
Anti-war activist, mother of U.S. Marine currently on his way to Iraq for a 3rd tour of duty; member of Steering Committee for the "World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime" and Military Families Speak Out.
Unfortunately, your son's return may not be permanent....
I am so thankful that your child 'dodged the bullet' this tour. With the knowledge that many will today and tomorrow receive notice of a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th re-deployment, I hold my breath for all military families under the conscription of these war-mongering, Chickenhawk, lying criminals. They, unfortunately, are not finished with your progeny and others quite yet. With battleships congregating in the Persian Gulf for the Bush/Neocon/PNAC 'Rapture' reckoning with Iran, I can only offer my deepest regrets and hope that 'political' deaths will intervene to end the carnage before your beloved is re-deployed.
by
Amanda Lang (22 articles, 13361 quicklinks, 424 diaries, 557 comments)
on Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at 11:05:40 PM
I am also happy that your son will make it back in one piece. Many sons and daughters have not. It angers me that so many are dying just so the Oil Pigs can have uncontested rights to Iraqi oil, and so Halliburton can get all those nice bloated no-bid contracts.
It is both a shame and a sham. The worst part of it is these kids are being sent to fight and die by men who were too chicken to go to Vietnam, up to and including DUBYA, our illustrious Chimp in Chief. Where were they when they could have been putting THEIR lives on the line? They sure as hell weren't in Vietnam.
My brother served a few tours there. He came out of it fairly unscathed, but he went. Can DUBYA say that? Can Cheney, Wolfowitz, Dumsfeld? Nope, not one of them can say that.
Maybe you should get together with the rest of the mothers with whom you email and get some kind of protest going. It wouldn't hurt.
Blessed be!
Pappy
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Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 2:35:38 AM
One of the architects of the failure that was Iraq is back in the White House. Has any one living Republican made so much money off the deaths of so many young US citizens? New Congressional Medal - The KISS of DEATH Award given in honor of those who so willingly send others to die in the wars they design from the comfort of their fat asses situated safely on a tax-funded chair in the Oval Office?
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Amanda Lang (22 articles, 13361 quicklinks, 424 diaries, 557 comments)
on Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 8:59:55 AM
Rumsfeld and his people believe that those who die today prevent much greater numbers of Americans from dying in the future. With our small minds, we don't see the big picture.
I once read an article about Wolfowitz that described how, while with the Defense Department, he regularly visited wounded soldiers and their families at Walter Reed.
Their true believers and, never mind their core beliefs, it's tough to even discuss strategy with them.
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Russ Wellen (58 articles, 1029 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 335 comments)
on Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 9:00:32 AM
