Losing Children To War
Image by Miranda Perry. Some rights reserved.
What struck me most about Andrew J. Bacevich's column in today's Washington Post is that Bacevich answers the wrong question. He asks whether he is a good citizen. He should ask whether he was a good father.
A suicide bomb killed Bacevich's son May 13. Bacevich is an opponent of the war in Iraq and some nuts have accused him of complicity in his son's death claiming Bacevich's public opposition to the war provided aid and comfort to the enemy:
Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.
Bacevich concludes that he is not responsible for his son's death. It is the political people and our political system. His son was a good soldier, and he is a good citizen:
To whom do Kennedy [and] Kerry. . . .listen? We know the answer: to the same people who have the ear of George W. Bush and Karl Rove -- namely, wealthy individuals and institutions.
I don't have any doubt that Bacevich is a good citizen or that good citizens should openly question the war. I also think those are the easy questions.
The question I would struggle with if I were Bacevich - one that haunts me as a parent, particularly as I hear our urban high school's graduation speakers speak positively of military service and watch nitwitted ROTC kids march around carrying flags - is a different and more difficult one: Shouldn't Bacevich have tried to stop his son from becoming a soldier?
If a parent doesn't attempt to dissuade his child from taking a job killing other people's children, isn't he culpable?
Bacevich was doing his duty as a citizen. He wasn't doing his duty as a father.
Comments:
· http://freewheelingspirit.blogspot.com Some parents must be trying to talk their kids out of signing up these days. Have you seen the new Army ads targeting Moms and Dads?
http://www.slate.com/id/2124786?nav=nw
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05/29/07 @ 08:23 
