My Marine son's take on Haditha

[stanwyck]

My son is a 22-yr. old Marine who has served two tours in Iraq. He will have a third.
He's home this weekend on leave. And my husband and I talked to him about Haditha. His immediate reaction was an apology. He's sorry that Marines are associated with this atrocity. He is anguished over the accounts of innocent people assassinated. He worries that the guilt by association will damage us, his parents. And he is in pain over the dishonor that the corp suffers because of Haditha.
He knows how brutal the circumstances are in Iraq, for everyone. The military and the civilians. He's had buddies killed. He's seen the aftermath of IED explosions. He's seen and experienced the toxic mixture of fear and anger.
But he knows that murder can't ever be acceptable. Not even in war. We aren't animals. We have alternatives.
And I have to confess to my fellow DUers, who have always been so amazingly supportive of our family, my selfish reaction when I first read of Haditha. I quickly thought, when did this happen? Where was my son? Relief. He was already back. He wasn't there. He wasn't involved.
And you tell yourself, of course, he wasn't. He couldn't be. He's my son.
Right.
My first thought wasn't about the children murdered. I thought about my son. I thought about his future. His life.
Tonight, I'm remembering the other mothers who worry about their children's future. The mothers in Iraq who aren't facing which colleges will accept their sons. But whether or not they'll be killed by bombs or bullets.
I'm also thinking about those mothers whose sons were Marines in Haditha. They're in pain, now, too. The difference is, their sons are still alive.
It's over-whelming to me.
War really is hell.

[w8liftinglady]

1. I thought about my son as well

he was in Fallujah a few years ago when some "bad shit" went down.What-I'll never know-but he's never been the same.I hate these bastards who place power and greed before humanity.I will never rest until they have all been removed from power.

[stanwyck]

31. I'm so sorry

for your son. The damage is barely understood by most of us. I'm glad, though, that your son has you by his side.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. You have much on your mind and heart

:hug:

[jody]

3. God bless you and yours. n/t

[Maat]

4. The young adults mentioned here that are bravely serving ..

are in our family's prayers. May the tragic occupation end, with our personnel returning safely!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. K&R... So many families have and will be touched by this terrible

atrocity.

Both here and in Iraq.

We have to remember that all involved are people with hopes and dreams and lives that cry to be lived. All I want is for our children to be brought home and this war to end.

Peace, and I am so happy your son is well.

[Bjornsdotter]

6. As a parent

...of course your first thought was about your child, that is how it should be....any parent understands that. :hug: to you and yours.

Cheers

[Rose Siding]

7. Thank you

Thank you so much for sharing your son's reaction.

May he stay safe.

[mourningdove92]

8. Your story made me weep.

Damn GWB and his buddies. The death and destruction caused by them is beyond belief.

[knowbody0]

9. thank your son for me and my family

i vision the men involved shell shocked and temporarily insane. we cannot even imagine what they are going through.

i am deeply saddened by this story and am reminded vividly of the boys coming home from Vietnam, unable to speak of the war.

it is time to evolve away from the madness. we invaded a sovereign nation and are occupying it. the Iraqi people have been disrespected, dehumanized, and disregarded since day one of the war. that they fight back who they see as the enemy is human nature.

we can only pray for enlightenment, and an end to the carnage

peace and love

[Olney Blue]

10. Have you visited the FDR memorial in DC?

There are huge boulders strewn about symbolizing the chaos of war that are carved with FDR's statement, "I hate war."
Your post reminded me of this.

I wish the best for you and your family.

[BikeWriter]

11. I salute your Son for his service.

:patriot:

[stanwyck]

12. Each one of you, my heartfelt

thanks. During both of my son's tours, the people here kept me sane. Really. I remember your words. I take your advice. And your strength and compassion helps my son, my husband, my daughter (my son's twin), and myself immeasurably. You make all the difference.
Thank you all.

[SeattleGirl]

13. Thank you for sharing this with us, stanwyck, and please,

let your son know that there are many among us who do not paint an entire group of people with a broad brush because of the actions of a few -- regardless of how atricious those actions are.

May he stay safe, and may you and your family find comfort in each other and with others when he has to leave again.

:hug: :patriot:

[Kenergy]

38. Well said n/t

[IndyOp]

14. Ask him to refuse to return to Iraq.

If you know this war is wrong, ask him to refuse to return.

More innocents are dying now. More will die tomorrow and the next day and the next.

Until, finally, all mother's sons refuse to pick up the guns.



I do not have a son. I have asked students to refuse to serve. I have talked one out of joining the Marines. I've shared William Blum's "Killing Hope: 250 Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" with a student who wanted to join the CIA.

My cousin Mac served in Vietnam. Mac was a surgeon who served near the front lines. He saw too much. He did too much. He came home, but could not go on. His service to country, undertaken because he believed the lies about the communist menace, supported the killing the innocents at My Lai and on many, many other occasions.

If we don't end war, it will end us.

I wish you and your family peace.

[Berserker]

19. Thank you for having

balls enough to post that. I went in the military in 69 and was discharged in 72. I got a general discharge for what I did to get out. To this day I am not ashamed of what I did and I will not apologize. It takes a brave man to go to war and it takes a brave man to say I want no more.

[stanwyck]

23. I work for a company owned by

two brothers. One has four sons. My Marine son was visiting me at work one day, after his first tour in Iraq, while my boss's college age son was there. My boss embarrassed his son, (a really nice kid), by saying "Look at him, he's fighting for his country, and you're just partying at school." I was embarrassed. So was my son. I hate that attitude. The idea that one person's decision is so much more valuable than someone else's. My boss's son is a good kid who is also serving his country. He's involved in many liberal causes and is a serious student.
There are many ways to serve your country. Most do not involve invading a foreign, sovereign nation with weapons.

[Djinn]

27. if we were talking about wars of defence

then signing up is honorable, when we're talking impreial wars for cash (which 99% are) then going AWOL or getting out however you can is the honorable thing.

I would hope nobody expects you to apologise for refusing to be a part of theft, exploitation and murder.

[Asgaya Dihi]

15. Some good posts tonight.

First the one for the soldiers who could use some mail, and now this one. Thanks for posting this.

[BeFree]

16. War is hell

My heart hurts for you and your son, and all the sons and daughters who are damaged by this and every other ill-begotten war.

I pledge to you, that from now on, I will redouble my efforts to bring the troops home, so that your pain and the Iraqi's pain, will soon have a final end in sight.

So that one day soon, we may again all live in peace.

[orwell]

17. War isn't hell...

...it isn't necessary. War is the failure of politics, the death of reason. It has always been this way. What is amazing is that everyone believes that this time it will be different. It never is.

We have such soothing euphenisms for killing, but in the end it is someone's son, daughter, brother, or sister, and someone else returns a shell, desensitised to the horrors they have witnessed. It lines the pockets of a few elites, while human beings are reduced to mindless cannon fodder.

Be all that you can be - wage peace.

[stanwyck]

18. I think war was necessary in WWII

The Nazis were immune to political pressures. As were the Japanese. I believe that war was justified. We had to disassemble the death camps. We did not have to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.
But Korea, Viet Nam, and Iraq were not, are not, necessary.
War was not the last recourse. We had not exhausted every other option. We barely considered other options.
War dehumanizes everyone.
I agree with your assessment. With that exception. We had to stop Hitler and the axis powers.

[otherlander]

24. Yes, at the point that the Allies took up arms against

the invading Axis, war was necesary. But if the end of WW1 had been marked by a more fair treaty, it still seems to me that the entire thing could have been prevented.

[lfairban]

40. I hesitate to correct your misconception, but . . .

. . . I can't help myself.

I spent some time reading Time Capsule (1939-1945 the War Years) an abbreviated compilation of Time Magazine articles.

One misconception is that we didn't know about the death camps or the genocide until the Allies liberated them. This is not true.

The second is that we conducted the war in order to stop the Holocaust. This is also not true.

The truth is not pleasant, we did know, we didn't care. FDR specifically or the Christian population in general did not see it as a really big thing. There is less coverage of the genocide than of the occupation of Greece which we barely remember.

There were many reasons, that was not one of them.

[davhill]

20. Its bad enough to be asked to give your life for your country

You shouldn't be asked to give up your soul as well.

[Tsiyu]

21. Your first reaction was normal for a mom

Your son's reaction to the atrocities says more than any other post could say.

War is hell, but there are a great many decent, moral people forced to fight wars.

I am angry over the lives of each Iraqi citizen, each innocent who has been killed in my name. There is nothing glorious, nothing Christ-like, nothing all-American, nothing moral in the deaths of innocents.

I wish I could force every active military person to stay home from this bullshit war that never ends. Your son is a good person who should not be put in the position of having to defend the indefensible.

Thank you stanwyck for giving us one Marine's perspective.

This is a Memorial day full of a great deal of sadness.

[SunDrop23]

22. Thanks to your son and prayers for you and your family.

[fooj]

25. Dehumanization...

If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.-Mother Teresa

I can't even begin to understand what you and your family are going through.

(((((((hugs))))))))

[calimary]

39. I can't begin to understand that part, either. But what I can do is fight

this madness.

I won't stop until everybody's back HOME again (that means Iraqis too, so they can get down to the business of building THEIR OWN nation without us meddling at gunpoint) and this damned war is OVER.

YOU are why WE fight, stanwyck. You and your boy. And everyone else here - Mari333 and others who've sacrificed sons, step-sons, nephews, grandsons, grandnephews, friends, neighbors' sons. YOU are why the rest of us fight on to end this, to bring the bastards who lied to launch this to justice, and bring ALL our precious ones home - safe, and in one piece, THE SOONER THE BETTER.

BTW - I'm surprised bush hasn't taken the easiest out he could (and he'd get away with it, too) - JUST LIE AND SAY WE WON. AND GET THE HELL OUT! I'm serious. He lied us into it. What's the matter with lying us out of it, too? At least he'd be consistent. And WE would be OUT OF THERE. And there'd be plenty of bushbots and morans who'd buy it unquestioningly.

[Trajan]

26. Its important to remember the idealism felt by a good many soldiers ....

Many of them Democrats who joined from a sense of duty ....

Your son is quite honorable to consider the ramifications of these acts in this way ....

Humility is SO lacking today .... so much macho pride and hubris has replaced deeply considered values as the prime motivators in our government ....

PLEASE thank your son for his service for me, and PLEASE let him stay safe, and be moral in his actions ....

[kittenpants]

28. Thanks so much for your post....

You have a very big heart to be able to see all of that while worrying about your own son. Thanks to your son as well.

[IronLionZion]

29. They wouldn't be in a position to kill if politicians had not sent them

I blame the politicians. These kinds of tragedies happen when frustration is high and morale is low.

Ask your son what it's really like over there. My former classmates who came back from Iraq said not to believe any of the shit on TV here. They said it's all out civil war.

[stanwyck]

30. My son says the same. We're in the middle of

civil war. He was very idealistic his first tour. And said that lasted less than two weeks. It became clear, very fast, that the Iraqi people don't want us there. And that's discouraging for the troops.
The second tour was rougher. By that time, the troops' idealism has almost all disappeared. It's a job. A grim job. The illusions of "liberation and democracy" have become a sick joke.
But, from what I've read (USA Today had a very distressing, and long, front page article about this a few months ago) the third tour is when the wheels really come off. By that time, the soldiers are that bad combination of angry, tired, and scared. They've seen too much death, lost too many friends. And this is when bad things happen.
So. I'm really dreading that third tour my son will have early next year.
I'm just hoping that the climate is different by that time. But that's probably delusional.

[BrightKnight]

32. .

[GliderGuider]

33. War Resisters Support Campaign

http://www.resisters.ca/

"The War Resisters Support Campaign is a broad-based coalition of community, faith, labour and other organizations and individuals that have come together to support U.S. soldiers seeking asylum in Canada because they refuse to fight in the illegal war in Iraq.

"The Campaign works on two fronts: we support the material needs of war resisters when they arrive in Canada; and we campaign to persuade the Canadian government to provide sanctuary for U.S. war resisters."

Please consider it.

[sarahlee]

34. Hard to know what to say

I lost the first man I loved and planned to marry to Vietnam. I've been a war resistor ever since.

Peace and Blessings to you and your son and all of the mothers and sons and daughters caught in war.
This just breaks my heart.


I urge others to join the DoP campaign:

Participate in an historic citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace. There is currently a bill before both Houses of Congress (House Resolution 3760 and Senate 1756). This historic measure will augment our current problem-solving modalities, providing practical, nonviolent solutions to the problems of domestic and international conflict.

Domestically, the Department of Peace will develop policies and allocate resources to effectively reduce the levels of domestic and gang violence, child abuse, and various other forms of societal discord. Internationally, the Department will advise the President and Congress on the most sophisticated ideas and techniques regarding peace-creation among nations

http://www.thepeacealliance.org/

[bdamomma]

35. our sick officials who stole this government

do not believe that war is hell, because they have never been involved in one. If they had served they would know first hand what it is like to kill someone or be involved in a horrible conflict like this.

[DarbyUSMC]

36. This war is like a house built on sand.

We've seen the heart-warming, human interest pieces showing our men and women helping children; playing soccer; building schools only to have them blown up later etc. etc. We've looked into the eyes of the Iraqis and of our own sons and daughters, when cameras zoom in for close-ups. We've seen the look of fear, hate, pity, love and about every emotion known to mankind.

I feel for you and your son. The knot in the core of my being is getting tighter every day.

"War ---- what's it good for? Absolutely nothin'."

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

37. I hope your son is home, alive and well to stay very soon...

...I'm sorry for what you and your family are having to endure and wish you the best.