“Mom”

I can appreciate where you are coming from, especially in the issue of supporting the troops. But there is bias and there is bias. The calls for withdrawl may be a ‘political’ issue but there are other issues closer to my heart.

You recognise that it is mainly sons who are being sent to war. You sympathise with the mothers. You write – “I believe there would be a sense of compassion for the parents, especially the mothers of the sons that were living in the constant worry that only a mother can have for a child.”

Why ‘especially the mothers’ ? There are only two parents. Do you assume that the father doesn’t worry. Or doesn’t worry as much? What about that the father has worries ‘that only a father can have’? Ever heard that phrase? At all? Do they not matter as much?

This elevation of mothers is a constant. It is bias. I have every sympathy with the mothers but by emphasising the mothers’ concerns, when there are only mothers and fathers, is to subordinate the fathers’ concerns. It marginalises men.

Bob, you are something of a ‘cog-wheel’ in the Republican machine, so I can understand the emphasis on Democrat feint-heartedness, but you are also a man. Why emphasise the mothers and marginalise fathers? Is it your bias, or a repeated societal bias, or a Republican one? We already know that Democrats have it.

Maybe you should also be looking at just why it is the sons who are being shipped out to face the enemy. Where are the daughters? Why are the daughters given a free pass? In this era where women claim they can do anything a man can and better, why are there no women’s battalions? Why no selective service obligations for women? Is is so they can sit at home, safe and sound, and ‘worry’? Why is it that there are 140,000 mainly young men out in Iraq and a handful only of young women? There should be 70,000 women out there and 70,000 men.

Republicans have held the Chair for a number of years now. What the f*ck have they done to change the bias? Your expressions of sympathy for the mothers at the expense of Sons and ignoring fathers altogether is indicative. I will believe that Republicans support the troops when I see every other troop a female. Until then I think Republican support is gender partisan and barely worth having.

I have been a troop. I have been to war. I have done my share of fighting. Frankly, I don’t give any credence to political support nor political opposition.

You might look to British History as it affects the origins of America. There was as much opposition in Britain to fighting the American colonists as you are finding today. And there was every prospect of the colonists losing too until the French and Dutch joined in on your side. Woe betide if anyone joins in ‘officially’ on the insurgents’ side in Iraq. Then you’ll know what opposition and lack of home support really means.

What will we be able to rely on? Mothers will no doubt still be getting more sympathy than their dead sons. The fathers will still be ignored.