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Mothers Speak of WarAs Mother's Day approaches, new atrocities are being committed in Iraq. Perhaps it would help end the violence if we listen to the mothers who have been affected by the war.
My son is a U.S. soldier deployed in the Sunni Triangle. In January I traveled there to visit him and talk with Iraqis. I found that despite the wide cultural and economic differences between mothers in Iraq and the U.S., concern for our children binds us together. Meet Sandy of Missouri. When Shiite mosques were bombed in Baghdad and Karbala Sandy urged her soldier son, David, to donate blood for victims. "I don't understand inhumanity to fellow beings," she says. "Let mothers talk and we'll convince the world that life is so precious and war is so dumb." Anwar of Baghdad says, "One night a military patrol of two humvees shone a very bright light on our car and the soldiers started shooting at us. My husband put his hand out the window and yelled, 'Stop shooting! It's just my wife, my children in the car!' But the soldiers shot for fifteen minutes. I was pregnant, shot in the leg and the arm, and covered in my husband's blood. He died that night. So did my 18-year-old son and my 14 and 8 year-old daughters. When you go back to America, tell them there is tragedy in Iraq." Through summer heat and winter ice, Marianne holds up photographs of her soldier sons outside the post office in her Michigan hometown. "Passers-by won't even look at us never mind the faces of our children. I see a group of Americans in Iraq enriching themselves and their corporate friends at the expense of our children. Notice they're careful to hide the real numbers of the dead and wounded. We never see their faces. They're anonymous, hidden; not the children of people like you and I because that humanizes them and this administration can't afford to have the public identify with our kids." CHILDREN'S NIGHTMARESAna experienced war in her native Nicaragua. Her son joined the 4th Armored Division because he wants better opportunities in life. Military recruiters painted a glorious picture of the benefits: low interest home loans, free education. "He could have those things without going into the military if he worked hard at college. He was wounded in Tikrit, taken to Germany for medical care and returned to Iraq. He talks to Iraqis and finds them well-educated and respectful. He says if you pay attention and listen you can learn enough Arabic to respond. Iraqis make him feel he's back home." Aglame, a Chaldeen Christian of Baghdad says, "When war started, we saw the bomb bays opening under the planes flying over our home; so many explosions and so many bombs. Now our children have nightmares and don't want to play outside. U.S. soldiers kick in doors in the middle of the night, pull the family out of bed and make them stand in the streets before they get fully covered. For Muslims this is bad. It's bad for Christians too, but worse for Muslims who have strict dress codes." Recently, a mother from Palo Alto, Calif., who heard of my travels to visit my son, wrote me. "You should be ASHAMED OF YOURSELF for embarrassing your son. He's there by choice; he isn't [a] little boy. You should be proud he's man enough to join our military. I'm proud of my son. I pray, cry, worry but I trust God will bring him back safe. What kind of a mom are you? People like you should not be allowed in Iraq. You don't sound American. Try talking to radical Muslims and you won't live long!" I answer, "I'm more embarrassed by our nation going to war with Iraq than I am for visiting my son. America's sons and daughters should be home where they belong." Susan Galleymore is the mother of a U.S. soldier in Iraq. After visiting her son in Baghdad, she created Mother Speak (www.motherspeak.org) to give voice to mothers affected by the "war on terror." |
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