Mothers raise anti-war voices...parents of service members, vets no longer are content to just cheer

[babylonsister]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9435

Mothers raise anti-war voices

Four years after the Iraq invasion, parents of service members and vets no longer are content to just cheer

By Matthew D. LaPlante / Salt Lake Tribune

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"There's no substitute to talking to people directly involved in this situation and, in that case, there were more and more people expressing real concern," Matheson said.

Yet just as maternal concern can drive a mother to protest, it also can keep her silent.

"I was somewhat paranoid that if I spoke out against the war, someone in the military would find out . . . and that my son would be treated punitively, either outright or in other subtle ways," said Kim Spangrude, whose soldier son served in Iraq.

But after her son returned home from the war - and especially after he was treated with what she perceived as disrespect as he attempted to access his veterans benefits - all bets were off.

Now a leader with the group Military Families Speak Out, Spangrude angrily recalls a phone conversation with a Veterans Affairs receptionist in which she said Spangrude's son might not be eligible for certain benefits because it had been two years since "he got out of that war thingy."

"I said, 'Now, do you mean that 'war thingy' where over 3,100 American men and women lost their lives during the past three years?' and she said, 'Yeah, one of those war thingies - Vietnam War, Iraq War, whatever,' '' Spangrude said.

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