War Mom Seeks Pain Fest
Mary-Jo Cooney writes in the Washington Post about her boy who is all grown up and going to war. She touches on some heartstrings, and then says this regarding a young man who …
…. at age 5, sang “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” in front of the National Christmas Tree. Of course, it is too much to expect that George Herbert Walker Bush would have any recollection of that event, or that he would care that his son is putting my son, and hundreds of thousands like him, in harm’s way.
He’s 23 now and he’s a Marine. Doesn’t say whether he’s an officer or enlisted, or when he made his commitment. If it was ROTC, that could have been before the Iraq War started, maybe when 9/11 was more recent, as far back as 2001 or 2002. It’s remotely possible he signed his name before we even knew we were at war with Islamic terrorism, I suppose, and the anger is that he has to go to war at all. Maybe he signed on to fight al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, not Iraq. A lot of people complain about that. She doesn’t say. No matter, he’ll be fighting al-Qaeda anyway. Or maybe proxies for Iran, who also need fighting and were killing Americans — Marines, in fact — long before we invaded Iraq. In any case, he’s a grown man who made his own decision about what to do with his life. He signed up with the military to serve his country. That’s what he’s going to do in Iraq.
Reason to be proud, Mother Cooney, not spiteful. Certainly not reason to wish for a destructive and pointless political exercise that not even the Democrats, with one or two politically motivated exceptions, have contemplated seriously:
Will it take a universal draft for President Bush and the rest of the country to understand the price that this war is exacting?
I sympathize with the pain of anyone seeing a loved one off to war. People who believe in this cause feel it as strongly as those who do not. People who support this war hate the deaths of American soldiers as much as those who do not. Parents who support this war feel the pain of their child’s death as deeply as those who do not. The partisan whining is wearing a little thin. I don’t blame the mom so much, though. Question for the Post: how many more politically confused parental guilt trips are you planning on running? May we have one that doesn’t disrespect the choice of the offspring in question next, please?
Neptunus Lex and Ledeen with similar thoughts.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:53 am on Monday, July 9, 2007
7 Responses to “War Mom Seeks Pain Fest”
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July 9th, 2007 at 4:46 am
[...] to be an insufferable, insensitive pig and no small surprise he’s joined by none other than Jules Crittenden in the bash a Marine Mother fest. Whiskey Fire chimes in on Leeden’s twisted post [...]
July 9th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I sympathize as well.
Maybe this Al Qaeda Front Group in Iraq Threatens to Go to War With Iran ….. for you see the enemy of my enemy in this case may ease the angst of parent(s) real or not so real.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288600,00.html
July 9th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Please, please, not another mother with absolute moral authority.
I would share her fear and pain if it were my son going to war. But I have never stood in his way when he (an adult) made decisions about his life, and I would never humiliate him by parading my fear for him in front of other people.
July 9th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
“Mary-Jo Cooney writes…”
Who cares?
July 9th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Wait. What does Bush.41 have to do with it? If he’s 23, and he sang when he was 5, then Bush.41 was President. Is she math confused?
July 9th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Bush 41 fought in a war himself. I wonder how many people care about that?
July 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Terrye, And? What’s the point?