I came so close to not reading this story. Its gotten to the point that reading about what people like this think of our military infuriates me so bad that I can almost literally feel my blood pressure going up as I read it. When I saw the title of the blog post over at The Pirate’s Cove I pulled my eyes away, but then had a compulsion to go back and read it. Sure enough, I found myself getting aggravated, but then I actually come close to feeling sorry for this woman because she really and truly doesn’t get it.
She has written an article that exposes her contempt for and embarrassment by the choices her son has made and, interestingly, it seems to be more about her than about her son. The title of her article is Portrait of a son at war, through a mother’s eyes. It should be Portrait of a lonely woman who clings to her children because she doesn’t have anything else in her life and when they leave home she’s completely alone. Its all about me, me, me.
Never in a million years did I imagine my son would join the Army. Nor did Evan. In high school, he’d hang up on recruiters who called the house. He’d blurt, “Get away from me!” to the ones who trawled the local hangouts. Our home was liberal Democrat and anti-war and now, at 21, he was a Michael Moore fan. The night before he left, he spent his time reading “Stupid White Men.”
When I tell people that Evan has joined the Army, their reactions are almost always the same: their faces freeze, they pause way too long, and then they say, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry for you.” I hang my head and look mournful, accepting their sympathy for the worry that lives in me. But as it dawns on them that Evan wasn’t drafted, as Vietnam still clings to my generation, their expressions become quizzical, then disbelieving. I know what they’re thinking: Why in the world would any kid in his right mind choose to enlist when we’re in the middle of a war? I begin telling them the story, desperate to assure them it wasn’t arrogant patriotism or murderous blood lust that convinced him to join. What finally hooked him was a recruiter’s comment that if he thought the country’s role in Iraq was so screwed up, he should try to fix it.
Now Evan is serving in Iraq. I wake up early these days. I make coffee, retrieve the morning papers and then compulsively read every story about murdered soldiers, beheaded soldiers, tortured soldiers, wounded soldiers, soldiers with missing limbs and damaged brains, soldiers who have gone berserk and raped and murdered innocent civilians. I purposely teeter on the edge of fear and grief, bracing myself for whatever the future brings.
My son has been in Baghdad for 15 months. He is finally a short-timer, but its been a long 15 months. In that time I too have teetered on the edge of fear and grief, bracing myself for whatever the future might bring. I understand the obsession with reading and watching the news. Some of us are hyper-vigilant in knowing what is happening there and others try to put it out of their minds all together. We all deal with it in whatever way we can.
In the 15 months my son has been in Iraq I have not heard of or read of REAL stories of soldiers going berserk or raping and murdering innocent civilians. I know of the accusations that have been made by some liberals (Murtha in particular), but none that have been proved to be fact based. No, I take that back, there was one case in which a sociopathic soldier raped a girl and killed her family. One. That’s a pretty phenomenal statistic considering what those guys are dealing with over there. I would challenge anyone to compare that to any other Army in the history of mankind and see how it compares.
I wonder where she’s getting stories about rape, murder and mayhem created by our Soldiers. She must read DU a lot.
Another thing … what kind of mother would be proud of her son idolizing Michael Moore, being rude to recruiters and disrespecting his own country. Then she turns around and act apologetic to her friends when trying to explain why he’d do something most men feel compelled to do and writes about it on the internet. He must really appreciate her support!
Does she think HER son is the only guy over there who isn’t raping, murdering and maiming ‘innocent civilians’? Apparently so. She has to assure her friends he’s not arrogantly patriotic or murderously lusting for blood. She says her son only went there to try to ‘fix it’. That doesn’t make sense. If he suddenly was persuaded, just out of the blue, by some lying, sniveling recruiter by being told he could go over there and change things, then the kid isn’t that well put together.
Obviously, there’s a WHOLE LOT more to that story!
In her story she infantilizes her son throughout (she drove him to the recruiter when he was 21 years old!!) and only periodically gives some glimpses into what really motivated this young man.
he signed up hoping that after, somehow the Army would help him find what young men these days often try to fill with alcohol, drugs and video games: a sense of purpose.
I can assure her that he will find more purpose in his life than he found being a mama’s boy who needed his mama to drive him to a recruitment office. He’ll be able to cut the umbilical cord that she has wrapped so tightly around him. Her article is about how his going to the Army has affected HER.
Like Teach says, if she’s lucky he will come back to her a man. In truth, regardless of her luck, he will most likely come back a man. The military generally has that effect on people.
Geeezzzzz ……
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