Anti-War Up -Military family organization protests U.S. presence in Iraq

http://www.borderlandnews.com/storie...09-19157.shtml



Borderland Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Military family organization protests U.S. presence in Iraq

Laura Cruz
El Paso Times



Link to Military Families Speak Out Web site:
http://www.mfso.org/

When El Pasoan Sally Bastante talks to her boyfriend, a soldier
thousands of miles away in Iraq, all she hears on the other end of the
line is heartbreaking frustration and depression.

"The morale is really low," said Bastante, 27, whose boyfriend left in
February with the 281st Transportation Company out of Fort Bliss. "The
last time he called me he told me, 'I don't know if I'm going to make it
out of here alive.' "

Bastante said she tries to cheer him up and distract him from reality,
but she wants to do more for her soldier and others whom she says need
to come home. She's considering joining Military Families Speak Out, a
national movement based in Jamaica Plain, Mass., that is calling on the
president and Congress to bring the troops home.

"Sometimes, I think that Congress thinks it is so easy to make a
decision that involves another country, but they overlook the effects it
will have on our military, their families and children," she said. "No
one speaks up, but our voices need to be heard."

In a nationally televised address Sunday, Bush told Americans they
should prepare for a long and expensive effort that will eventually lead
to a democracy in Iraq.

"The heaviest burdens in our war on terror fall, as always, on the men
and women of our armed forces and our intelligence services," he said.

Combat over, danger not

Bastante said she's tired of seeing that burden -- in terms of the
number of service members killed -- continue to rise. As of Monday, 287
U.S. service members have been killed since the conflict started March
20, with 149 of those deaths occurring after Bush declared the end of
major combat May 1, according to U.S. Central Command. There are about
250 Fort Bliss soldiers still in Iraq.

Bush, who asked for $87 billion to help pay for U.S. operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan, closed his speech by reading part of a letter from a
captain in the 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad who wrote about "his
pride in serving a just cause, and about the deep desire of Iraqis for
liberty."

Frustration grows

But a growing number of military families who say they don't support
Bush or the war are joining Military Families Speak Out. Members say
they, like Bastante, are frustrated by the long deployments, the danger
and the low morale, and they are determined to have their voice heard.

"I'm disappointed," said Candance Robison, a Military Families Speak Out
member who recently led a rally in her hometown of Crawford, Texas, and
is in Washington today delivering a speech to other military family
members. "I'm disappointed in the president, I'm disappointed in the
government, and I'm disappointed in the people who are leading our military.

"Military families are not going to sit back quietly anymore," she said.

Organizing for a cause

The organization, created in November 2002, has no members in El Paso,
but organizers are recruiting local spouses to join their cause, which
has 800 to 1,000 members nationwide.

Robison, who first heard about the organization the day before Bush
declared war, said that while her husband, 1st Lt. Michael Robison,
understood his duty, she was strongly opposed to the war.

"I wanted to find out if there were other families who felt the same way
I did, but I wasn't really prepared to do anything public because I
didn't want it to affect my husband," she said. "But then I started
toying with the idea that I should hold a rally because it came out that
maybe we hadn't been told the truth."

Robison said her husband's convoy was ambushed July 26 and that a
19-year-old soldier was killed while traveling from Baghdad to Fallujah.

"It was a routine trip to the Post Exchange to get some supplies,"
Robison said. "I went to the funeral (in Arkansas), and it was
absolutely the saddest thing. I didn't know the soldier or his family,
but I was sobbing. I was enraged because my husband and these men are
continually put in danger for absolutely no reason."

Questioning the mission

Robison said her husband, a combat engineer, and his soldiers are just
wasting their time running errands because they have no clear duties.

"On the plane over, they were told they weren't sure what their mission
was, but they would find out," she said. "When they got to Kuwait, they
just sat around for days. They didn't have a mission, and they still
don't have a clear mission."

Tracey Presley, wife of a Fort Bliss soldier, said she sympathizes with
Robison but isn't sure she would join the organization for fear it could
cause problems for her husband.

"His whole unit feels like they are not needed," she said. "Some of them
ask, 'Why are we here?' But I think that maybe it's hard for some people
to see the big picture."

Presley said she has considered writing a letter to the president and
her congressional representatives to ask them to send soldiers home for
at least a two-week break, but she isn't sure it would help.

"I don't want to be seen as a complainer, but if other troops are coming
home I don't see why I can't ask them to bring mine home," she said.
"The worst they can say is no."

Still other spouses believe they have to trust the government.

"They know the situation; they know they are discouraged," Barbara
Sherwood said. "Sometimes, between missions, there are dead spots, and
that's going to occur every now and then."

Sherwood said she knows the soldiers are in danger but that frustration
can sometimes prompt soldiers to exaggerate, causing additional worry
for loved ones. And writing to Congress isn't going to work, she said.

"The military doesn't operate on something a congressman says," she
said. "They have to go through a chain of command.".

Laura Cruz may be reached at lcruz@elpasotimes.com

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 22:47:48 +0200 (CEST), Tarapia Tapioco
wrote this crap:

>
>Borderland Tuesday, September 9, 2003
>
>Military family organization protests U.S. presence in Iraq

And I protest people posting this crap.

Don't these assholes ever read a contract?


Hero@Horvath.net

Ave Imperator Bush!
Bush Was Right! Four More Years!