I don't understand why EVERY parent doesn't react this way
Mother's view of the war
Battle fatigue on the home front
- Teri Wills Allison
Sunday, November 21, 2004
I am not a pacifist. I am a mother. By nature, the two are incompatible, for even a cottontail rabbit will fight to protect her young.
Violent action may be necessary in defense of one's family or home, and that definition of home can easily be extended to community and beyond, but violence, no matter how warranted, always takes a heavy toll.
Violence taken to the extreme -- war -- exacts the most extreme costs. There may be a just war, but there is no such thing as a good war. And the burdens of an unjust war are insufferable.
I know something about the costs of an unjust war, for my son, Nick, an Army infantryman, is fighting one in Iraq. I don't speak for him. I couldn't even if I wanted to, for all I hear through the mom filter is "I'm fine, Mom, don't worry. I'm fine. Everything is fine, fine, fine. We're fine, just fine. '' But I can tell you what some of the costs are as I live and breathe them.
