Wednesday, April 14, 2004

The Wives Speak Up As I wrote a couple of days ago, the Army families here in Germany of the soldiers who were supposed to be returning this month after being in a war zone for a year are very upset that their soldiers are apparently not coming back anytime soon -- and those familes are trying to get their voices heard.  Specifically the wives who feel like they've been lied to. In the Stars and Stripes from Tuesday, the first few letters to the editor are from wives of soldiers currently in Iraq and who have been told they might be there four more months passed the promised year away from their families.  Here's part of what the first one had to say: Thanks, Secretary Rumsfeld I’d like to extend a hearty thank you to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the pending 120-day extension of our troops in Iraq. After all, what’s 120 days, really? For our family, it’s four birthdays (again), Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (again), our wedding anniversary (again), and the Fourth of July, which is what service is all about for a lot of military families. I thank Secretary Rumsfeld for all of his talk about not overburdening families and soldiers. One year of their lives on the line, worrying daily about their safety, couldn’t possibly be enough to “overburden” us. Thanks from our children, who apparently don’t need a father present, who cry when Mommy’s time is not enough for the four of them, who were counting the days until Daddy could hold them on his lap. You can read the rest of her letter along with several others from both Tuesday and Wednesday's Stars and Stripes.  Brutally honest letters that give voices to the families that don't think anyone is listening to them.  And trust me, these few letters are just the tip of the emotional ice berg.  I'm positive there are many, many more to come. Tuesday's letters Wednesday's letters 5:47:11 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.