Grieving mom laments lack of Iraq outrage

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0311030130nov03,1,3537722.column?coll=chi-homepagepromo451-fea

On Sunday, Pvt. Shawn Pahnke of far south suburban Manhattan would have turned 26. He was killed by sniper fire in June while on patrol in northern Baghdad.

His mother, Linda, and the rest of the family celebrated the birthday by going to a Sunday mass. On Saturday evening, family and friends celebrated Shawn Pahnke's life during a candlelight vigil at one of his favorite stomping grounds, a local bowling alley.

But amid such a bittersweet time of memories and celebrations, Linda Pahnke has a question: Have Americans forgotten about our soldiers over in Iraq?

Almost daily it seems we hear about soldiers dying, and she wonders why there hasn't been more outrage over the death toll.

<snip>

"I'm not hearing much of anything about these boys other than they're dead. And then it's on to the other news about Arnold Schwarzenegger or Kobe Bryant. Where are the Americans--the protesters, the marchers and the voices--at a time when we're supposed to stand together? These are our sons and daughters. They are mothers and fathers and siblings. They deserve much more."

[otohara]

1. Forgotten The Soldiers, Yes Mrs. Pahnke

and GDubya wants to keep it that way. Of course there are those who say Bring Em Home vs Bring Em On...and we're labled unAmerican.

[qanda]

2. Momma Linda, I was there!

I was protesting this illegal war and every step I took, I took for your son and for the countless others that will pay with their lives for George W. Bush's* evil conquest.

[Jacobin]

3. Forgotten? Hell yeah

Its verbotten to show pics of coffins, honor guards, talk to wounded.

All is going well in Iraq!! Don't question der Fuerher!!

When did she wake up from a dream that this administration gives a rat's ass about soldiers? Or brown people? Or anyone who isn't in their country club?

[NicoleM]

4. I remember at the beginning of the war

there was a group of parents of soldiers who were on TV for a day or two because they were against the war. It seemed to me that nobody in the media was really interested in what they had to say. I think the media may be more receptive to that now. Some of these parents should organize (if they haven't already) and try to get their stories on every outlet possible.

[nostamj]

9. they have organized!

Military Families Speak Out
www.mfso.org

www.BringThemHomeNow.com

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. This woman is treading dangerously close to inciting anti-cover banism

She would be well advised to watch what she says.

[xultar]

6. George W. Bush, Rummy and the rest of the gang have...

blacked out coverage of the soldiers deaths and sanatized everything that is reported from IRAQ. I hurt for her and the rest of the country. This Administration has tried to wipe the soldiers deaths under the rug. Plus we've got those fuckin CRAZY ASS FREEPERS thinking that Bush and his gang are doing a great job. Yeah, a great job of getting our soldiers killed.

[heidiho]

7. Today on MSNBC they profiled two funerals

of service people (one male and one female) and showed the cemetary services in their hometowns. Gave their names, hometowns, ages and actually showed grieving faces!

I wrote them an e-mail of praise and thanks.

Now will other news stations follow suit?

[Scott Lee]

8. Dear Mrs. Pahnke,

Rest assured that many of us have not forgotten, nor does more than a passing few minutes go by when our thoughts or actions are not consumed with stopping the atrocious crime that brought your son over to Iraq.

Who do we hold responsible for such a tragedy? The soldier himself, who volunteered to enlist in a military without ever thinking he would actually be put in harms way? The Iraqi who fired the bullet, trying to rid his nation of an invader? Or an out of control, criminal administration that now seeks to set us at each others throats so that the Cheneys, Rumsfelds and Wolfowitzes can slink away with their crimes?

I didn't want to see your son dead. I wanted him home, worrying of nothing more than a game score or making it to his favorite bowling alley. The question is, what are you and other military families going to do about this atrophy of power, reason and morality in the top levels of our nations government? Are you going to continue to salute George Bush, the TRUE architect of mass murder that claimed your son?

[Clark Can WIN]

10. I remember Mrs. Pahnke.

In fact I weep most days too. I will keep on writing my congress and senators and I will keep working to get Clark (or the dem nom) into the White House.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. Unfortunately, it also took quite some time for the American people...

...to overcome the government propaganda about Vietnam, too. It took nearly nine years, 1956-1965, for Americans to take to the streets in serious numbers to protest the Vietnam War. By that time, more than 2,000 American soldiers and other combatants were dead.

The Vietnam War protests
<http://ohoh.essortment.com/vietnamwarprot_rlcz.htm>

As indicated in the article linked above, the first rudimentary anti-Vietnam War protests began sometime in the 1964-1965 time-frame.

The article linked above also states that "Once the draft was introduced young people on college and university campuses all around the country began to organise protests against the war." This statement is acually incorrect.

As noted on the website below, the military draft had been ongoing since 1948. The military draft was not ended until 1973 when the concept of the All-Volunteer Army was first introduced. "December 1, 1969 marked the date of the first draft lottery held since 1942", and was for men "born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950."

1969 Draft Lottery
<http://www.landscaper.net/draft.htm>

As noted in the article linked below, the U.S. had been involved in Indo-China/Vietnam since the French defeat in 1954, suffering the first deaths in 1956. The following webpage depicts the deaths incurred in Vietnam by year:

CACCF Record Counts by Year of Death or Declaration of Death (as of 12/98)
<http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/vietnam_war_casualty_lists/statistics.html#year>

I would also like to add that with the signing of NSAM 263 on October 11, 1963, JFK attempted to begin the process of getting the U.S. troops out of Vietnam. Four days after JFK was assassinated, LBJ signed NSAM 273 on November 26, 1963, which began the serious escalation of our military effort in the war.

NSAM 263
<http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM263.html>

NSAM 273
<http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM273.html>

[DUreader]

12. Does anyone know how to get in touch with this woman?

We need to contact her and let her know that the outrage is there

and media censorship has her feeling alone.

[eissa]

13. Here's the irony:

My family is from Iraq. At the height of the war with Iran, when Iraq was losing hundreds of men each month, Saddam prohibited the coverage of funerals! He went a little further than shrub in that he also prohibited public mourning (us Middle Easterners are big with the mourning rituals). But give * time -- I'm sure that's coming up next.

[Padraig18]

14. I was there, Linda, and I'm still here.

I have not forgotten your son. Maybe you saw me marching in Chicago to protest this illegal invasion last January? Maybe you saw me at the candlelight vigil to protest the war on the lawn of our state capitol in Springfield? Perhaps you have read one of my frequent LTE's?

I have not forgotten your son, Linda, nor will I forget him or the 150,000 other sons and daughters this criminal, neo-fascist administration has sent to Iraq. More importantly, Linda, I am working as hard and as intelligently as I know how to do to bring them all home--- alive.

May God rest his martyred soul, and may he comfort you and yours in a loss no mother should have to bear. :hug:

[this_side_up]

15. Has DoD or someone

published the entire list of the newly dead?

All I've been reading are articles about individual
people (which is a good thing) but where is the
entire list?

Thanks.

[Isome]

16. Without pictures...

of coffins, or of the color guard accompanying the caskets from the plane to other vehicles, people will continue to talk away the savagery/tragedy/sadness of it all! We'll just hear more about putting the death toll in "perspective", but nothing about the perspective of the family & friends of the dead. Their thoughts and feelings will drive home the point that this war is senseless because real live people are dying, not statistics, not "soldiers" (as an abstract group), not "troops" (as inanimate objects that protect us from foreign boogeymen), but flesh & blood Americans.