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Pray for the Military While Opposing the WarMy friend, Jan, drove 90 miles to the home office of Congressman Lucas to voice her opposition to the pending war against Iraq. She crowded into a small room with 13 people and sat around a speaker phone talking to her representative’s policy analyst sitting 600 miles away in Washington. The grassroots group, part of a nationally coordinated effort to lobby congress, brought a petition with 38 pages of signatures supporting further arms inspections and decrying the rush to war. Besides her religious and moral convictions for opposing the war, Jan carried to the meeting her personal stake in this conflict: "My son agrees with what I’m doing today, but he can’t express his opinion as a Marine deployed in Kuwait." Jan represents a significant number of parents in Appalachia, rural areas and inner cities who see their sons and daughters lured into the military because of limited options. Many like Jan are mothers against the war with a child in the military. Her son, Raymond, at age 21, down on his luck in debt with no job, one day impulsively called all the branches of the armed services. The Marines called him back first. He signed pledging a commitment of 4 years. The son of another friend, Laura, mirrors a similar story. Her son never adjusted to school, but limped through to graduation. He really wanted technical training in a vocational school. Joining the National Guard at age 19 he told his mother the Guard fights forest fires and helps people in emergencies. It also opened the door for technical training with a $4,000 educational grant after boot camp and an additional $4,000 promised after completing his 6 years. Laura like Jan opposes the war and actively demonstrates at the Bluegrass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky. When her son was recently called to active duty because of the crisis in Iraq, Laura simply lamented, "They bought him." Military recruitment especially targets upper low income and lower middle class kids in areas of less population density. A prime candidate for recruitment is a high school graduate, age 19, from a household owning one vehicle. While the volunteer military has not become the employer of only the disadvantaged and poor, it attracts those searching for direction and middle class kids with a ladder to climb into college and the technical training for a lifetime career. While people join the military services with mixed motives, the teaching of Vatican II reminds us: "All those who enter the military service in loyalty to their country should look upon themselves as the custodians of the security and freedom of their fellow countrymen; and where they carry out their duty properly, they are contributing to the maintenance of peace." The Marines trained Raymond as a specialist in urban warfare. That means house to house fighting. He attends Mass regularly, but worries about the moral decisions he might face in combat. How about a 4 year old boy approaching with a basket–shoot or risk a concealed bomb? The situation requires split second decision making. Children are used as shields and tricked into carrying bombs. They risk becoming victims of evil manipulation. In a parallel way, good soldiers facing horrific ethical dilemmas represent another level of evil manipulation, when forced to fight a morally questionable war. The 13 people who visited Congressman Lucas’s office each got a minute to speak. Jan concluded simply: "Before we send our sons and daughters to kill Iraqi sons and daughters, let every possibility for peace be exhausted."
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Catholic Conference of Kentucky 1042 Burlington Lane Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Last modified: April, 2008 |
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