Yellow Dog

As families are gathering together for the Thanksgiving holiday, it seems appropriate to post this moving letter from a mother whose son is serving in Iraq.

"My son is involved in a deadly situation that should never have been. I feel like a mother lion in a cage, my grown cub in danger, and all I can do is throw myself furiously against the bars, impotent to protect him. My tolerance for b.s. is zero, and I've snapped off more heads in the last several months than in all the rest of my 48 years combined.

For the first time in my life and with great amazement and sorrow, I feel what can only be described as hatred. It took me a long time to admit it, but there it is. I loathe the hubris, the callousness, and the lies of those in the Bush administration who led us into this war.

Truth be told, I even loathe the fallible and very human purveyors of those lies. I feel no satisfaction in this admission, only sadness and recognition. I hope that, given time, I can do better. I never wanted to hate anyone."

While it's difficult to imagine what she must be going through, I did find myself identifying with her following description of how she no longer feels that she knows family members and friends who blindly support the administration who took us into this unnecessary war and did so without planning for enough troops or without having an exit plan. It's like we have completely different worldviews and makes me wonder how we even came from the same family and how we can possibly continue to be close when we don't share basic philosophical perspectives and values.

"Then there is the wedge that has been driven between part of my extended family and me. They don't see this war as one based on lies. They've become evangelical believers in a false faith, swallowing Bush's fearmongering, his chicken-hawk posturing and strutting. They cheer his "bring 'em on" attitude as a sign of strength and resoluteness.

Perhaps life is just easier that way. These are the same people who have known my son since he was a baby; who have held him, loved him and played with him; who have bought him birthday presents and taken him fishing. I don't know them anymore."

Mother's view of the war / Battle fatigue on the home front