The Wash­ing­ton Post reports that in blue-collar Amer­i­ca, “it’s the par­ents are hang­ing up on war and on the recruiters”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35400-2004Jul7?language=printer try­ing to send their sons overseas:
bq. “It’s the par­ents hold­ing me back,” [Army recruiter] Broad­wa­ter says. When he calls, they hang up the phone, refuse to put their chil­dren on the line, tell him off. They try to talk their sons and daugh­ters out of join­ing, and, more often now, they succeed.
Lots of good com­men­tary on this arti­cle and what it means from “Under the Same Sun”:http://www.underthesamesun.org/content/2004/07/index.html#000100, where I found this link. USS draws some good ques­tions for the peace movement:
bq. So, what are we tell moth­ers of future dead sol­diers? We were afraid to be seen as less than sup­port­ing of the troops so we will let them be sent to kill and get killed in an immoral occu­pa­tion? I am not say­ing that it was not hard to voice these truths, espe­cial­ly before all the evi­dence became wide­ly avail­able and before the body bags and bod­ies miss­ing parts start­ed stream­ing back home. It is part­ly a ques