U.S. soldier under arrest for grenade attack. UPDATE: Please re-read original post.

SuiteDisney · Mar 22, 2003

UPDATE: I just want to share with you what I was thinking of when I heard this report...

This is a letter written to Erma Bombeck and printed in her book, Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession.
________________________________
Dear Erma,

You feel like my best friend. The only thing that surprised me was to find out that I am taller than you.

Anyway, I have something I want to talk to you about. There is no solution to this. I just want to let you know we exist, we are human too and we hurt with the helplessness I can't begin to describe.

I belong to a group of people that doesn't even know it's a group. We have no organization, no meetings, no spokespersons, we don't even know each other. Each of us, as individuals, are way in the back of the closet with the rats and cockroaches. We may not even be any different from our neighbors. We look the same, talk and act the same, yet when people know our secret, they shun us as lepers.

We are the parents of criminals. We too love our children. We too tried to bring them up the best way we knew how. There is small solace in reading of a movie star or politician's kid being arrested. It helps but little to realize that our pain is not confined to the poor. (Although studies have shown that a rich kid is more likely to be sent home with a reprimand from the police, where a poor kid will wind up in jail.)

We are the visitors. Mother's Day, Christmas, our kids cannot come to us, so we go to them. For some of us, the hurt is so unbearable, we cut out the cause - we give up on them. Some parents don't visit, don't write, don't acknowledge the living being they bore.

I have not yet given up on my son, though the court has. I still cry, and plead, and encourage and pray. And I still love him.

I search my memory. Where did I fail him? My son was planned, wanted, and was exactly the all-around kid I had hoped for. I spent lots of time with him, reading stories, going for walks, playing catch, teaching him to fly a kite. We went to church together every Sunday since he was 4. He did all right in school and his teachers liked him. He had lots of friends, and they were always playing ball or going fishing, all the regular kid things. He was on Little League. I went to every game. He won a trophy for All-Stars. He was just a regular kid.

That's only one. Mine. There are thousands of them. Criminals with ordinary childhoods. We, their parents, trying to live ordinary lives. And maybe being ostracized by family members and certainly by society. ("Maybe it's contageous!")

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. My son is running from the police. I didn't do it, I don't condone it, nor try to justify what he did. But I still love him, and it hurts.

I hope you can find room in your heart to accept us, who love the children society hates.

I'm sure you understand why I just cannont put my name. Thanks for letting me get it off my chest.

"Mom"
____________________________________

I just hope we have compassion for this soldier's parents. Thanks for reading.

Luv2Roam · Mar 22, 2003

It would take a lot of strength not to have something happen to him by accident. :mad:

SuiteDisney · Mar 22, 2003

I feel so bad for his family.

Can you imagine how ashamed they must feel?

Jeff in BigD · Mar 23, 2003

There's one solution to this - one bullet, one empty head.

minniecarousel · Mar 23, 2003

OMG!!

People!!

A young man cracks up & this is how we feel! UGH!

Plus - we don't know all the facts - but lets not kill him!

disneefamily · Mar 23, 2003

Disnee Dad Says..................minnie carousel is half right.
lets get all the facts, and find out what really happened.
It's not like the war has been on for a year, this guy did not "crack". I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like treason.
If thats the case then the screaming eagles deserve the chance to shoot a "fish" in a barrell.

PRINCESS Ariel34 · Mar 23, 2003

Originally posted by Jeff in BigD
There's one solution to this - one bullet, one empty head.

Would you feel like this if it were your child. Better yet how would you feel if you heard people saying this about your child.

ONly God and this soldier know what was going thru his mind at that point and time.

Being vengeful is really sad.

Mermaid02 · Mar 23, 2003

If this were my child I would be ashamed and disgusted beyond words.

I agree with DD that this is not a case of "cracking" BUT- we don't know if he did this or not (although it looks very likely) I wonder what the penalty is for treason.....

Eeyore2U · Mar 23, 2003

It is sad and as a parent I would be ashamed. I would also understand that if someone commits a geinous act the face the consequences. For someone to frag another it had to be premeditated. Let the law of the land prevail.

POLLY ANN · Mar 23, 2003

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, and say he fell asleep at his post and someone got in, but.......

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/22/sprj.irq.101.attack/index.html

What a shame.

Luv2Roam · Mar 23, 2003

I am so sick of people defending *children* who are actually adults!

"But he is just a child." :mad:

Gimme a break. He is an adult soldier.
AND if what I heard this morning is correct -- a muslim.
Who I feel for are American Muslim who may get anti-Muslim repercussions from this person's actions.
One of his victims DIED! He was someone's *child* too.

Olaf · Mar 23, 2003

The military legal system will take care of this ex-soldier. I'm sure there is a place already carved out for this character at Fort Leavenworth.

I feel no sympathy for this man--he deserves none. I have no desire to "understand" him, or to consider where his mind was to make him act in such a manner.

All of my sympathy is for the dead and wounded soldier's families.

Luv2Roam · Mar 23, 2003

Olaf --- Good words.

Another blurb on TV. He was "disgruntled."

jenjie · Mar 23, 2003

Originally posted by Olaf
I feel no sympathy for this man--he deserves none. I have no desire to "understand" him, or to consider where his mind was to make him act in such a manner.

All of my sympathy is for the dead and wounded soldier's families.

Ditto to Olaf. And as Luv2roam said, I also have concern for American Muslims over this one idiot. Especially any Muslim troops. You think their fellow soldiers will continue to trust them?

Grog · Mar 23, 2003

I'm sure there is a place already carved out for this character at Fort Leavenworth.

If he is guilty, I hope the place is actually six feet below Leavenworth.

I guarantee you if it wasn't for the media, he would have been dealt with by now by the friends of the dead and injured. At least this way he can have some lawyer blame it on the caloric content of the MREs he was eating or some other such nonsense :mad:

PRINCESS Ariel34 · Mar 23, 2003

Originally posted by Luv2Roam
I am so sick of people defending *children* who are actually adults! "But he is just a child."
Gimme a break. He is an adult soldier.
AND if what I heard this morning is correct -- a muslim.
Who I feel for are American Muslim who may get anti-Muslim repercussions from this person's actions.
One of his victims DIED! He was someone's *child* too.

Luv2Roam I don't know if you have children or not, but regardless of him being an adult he is still SOMEONE'S CHILD!

Yes your right the marine who died is someone's child also. It's sad all the way around.

God forbid some people with such vengeful hearts actually have to go thru something with their love ones.

Eeyore2U · Mar 23, 2003

Originally posted by PRINCESS Ariel34
God forbid some people with such vengeful hearts actually have to go thru something with their love ones.

I don't see this as vengance at all. I see this as justice at it simplest form. Hammurabi's Code, the basis for justice states "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"