Religions > Atheism > OT: Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
08 Dec 2003 05:28:08 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq |
Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see
the real story in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=471137
By Phil Reeves in Baghdad
08 December 2003
It must be strange to be Anthony Lopercio of the US Army's 82nd
Airborne Division.
The 23-year-old private has been dispatched to Fallujah to stand in
the front line on what is, for any American, one of the most hostile
places in the world. Yet, as he gazes across the dreary Iraqi
landscape, feeling the sullen resentment of its population towards
foreign occupation, he will not only be wondering about the guerrillas
out there. He will also be watching for the portly frame of his
father.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq |
10 Dec 2003 10:26:33 PM |
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On 8 Dec 2003 03:28:08 -0800, (maff), Message ID:
<18510aff.0312080328.651bf94@posting.google.com> wrote in alt.atheism;
Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see
the real story in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=471137
Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the
real story in Iraq
By Phil Reeves in Baghdad
08 December 2003
It must be strange to be Anthony Lopercio of the US Army's 82nd Airborne
Division.
The 23-year-old private has been dispatched to Fallujah to stand in the
front line on what is, for any American, one of the most hostile places
in the world. Yet, as he gazes across the dreary Iraqi landscape,
feeling the sullen resentment of its population towards foreign
occupation, he will not only be wondering about the guerrillas out
there. He will also be watching for the portly frame of his father.
Not long ago, Michael Lopercio, a 51-year-old restaurateur from Tempe,
Arizona, decided that he was not happy with the quality of the news he
was receiving about the war into which his son had been drawn. He also
realised that if the conflict dragged on, so would the amount of time
that his boy would have to remain in Iraq, where hundreds of young
Americans have already died. So he packed his bags and set off to
Baghdad to find out for himself what was happening, and to see if there
was anything he could do about it.
"We haven't been getting the full story in the US," he said. "The media
is covering events - shootings and bombings - but not the issues. They
are not covering what is really happening to Iraqi people and to the
Iraqi infrastructure and how this affects our chances of success here.
It's very important to understand the frustration of the average Iraqi
and how unhappy they are with their progress over the last eight
months."
The news that his father was coming to join him in the conflict zone was
a surprise for Private Lopercio. "He was utterly shocked when I called
him," said Mr Lopercio. He has yet to gain permission to see his son but
hopes it will come before he returns to the United States this weekend.
"It took five minutes to convince him I wasn't playing a practical joke.
But he was pretty excited for me. I thought he might be disapproving,
but he said he thought it would be an incredible experience for me." His
son was right. Mr Lopercio has found it incredible. Incredible that,
eight months after the invasion and occupation began, children are still
dying in Iraqi hospitals through a lack of antibiotics. Incredible that
schools have no lights, no heating, no books.
And incredible that, while he has been in Iraq this week, the occupation
authorities have staged an expensive public relations stunt by removing
the monolithic stone busts of Saddam Hussein that stood on the top of
the palace in which Paul Bremer, the chief US administrator, has his
headquarters.
"Why the hell are they wasting money taking down those heads of Saddam
from the coalition authority's palace when they could be spending it on
something more meaningful, like bringing heat and light and medicine to
Iraqi hospitals?" asks Mr Lopercio. His mission required courage, not
only because of the dangers of being an American in Iraq: his
willingness to challenge his country's reasons for going to war, and its
disastrous handling of the aftermath of the invasion, has not gone down
particularly well in Arizona.
He says conservative radio talk shows have begun attacking his wife, a
social worker, after she gave interviews to the newspapers about his
trip. "They have been reading out the interviews on the air, and giving
her a hard time. She's a little scared, and out of her element, to be
sure." He is one of a delegation of nine family members of US soldiers
and army veterans who have come to Iraq, led by the San Francisco-based
human rights group Global Exchange. Most of the group oppose the
occupation, while others say they simply want to see the situation for
themselves.
Among the group is Billy Kelly, a 60-year-old retired New York barman
who fought in Vietnam in 1967. He said: "There is not a day that goes by
when I don't think about what happened there 35 years ago." He had, he
said, come to check out a suspicion that what is playing out in Iraq has
similarities to his own grim experience in uniform. He, too, has had a
hard time for his stance, not least because he is from the city that was
the principal target of the 9/11 atrocities. "Some of my friends say
that I'm a traitor. But I feel that people can accept me, or not. My
hope is just that there will be a dialogue about what's going on. It
hasn't happened yet. At the moment, we have a diatribe from one side or
the other."
Anabelle Valencia, from Tucson, Arizona, had tried to visit her
daughter, Giselle Valencia, who is an army truck driver stationed in
Tikrit. But she was on a mission, and not at the base.
The delegation represents an increasingly organised minority that is
willing to challenge the unremitting spin from the Bush administration
and from Downing Street as both governments seek to justify their
operations in Iraq.
Another member of the group is Fernando Suarez del Solar. His son Jesus
Alberto, a US Marine, was one of the first Americans to be killed in
Iraq - the victim of an American cluster bomb. He has become a vocal
opponent of George Bush's policy in Iraq, denouncing the invasion as
illegal and demanding the immediate withdrawal of troops. "Our mission
is talking to ordinary Iraqis and US troops, figuring out why things
have gone so terribly wrong and what we can do to stop the violence and
bring the troops home," he said.
The delegation has been met with a resounding lack of enthusiasm from
the US military and "coalition" officials. They have been warning the
media of the dangers of the visit, at the same time as trying to
persuade it that most of the country is free of violence.
None of that has deterred Mr Suarez del Solar. He has a mission: to
visit the spot where his son died and bring home a jar of the soil into
which he bled. It will be placed in a park that the boy used to visit
and marked with a white rose.
10 December 2003 20:23
© 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq |
10 Dec 2003 11:32:48 PM |
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On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 20:26:33 -0800, stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote:
:
<snip>
:
...He, too, has had a
hard time for his stance, not least because he is from the city that was
the principal target of the 9/11 atrocities. "Some of my friends say
that I'm a traitor...
:
<snip>
:
More evidence of yanks who have no idea that "9/11" has absolutely no
connection whatsoever with Iraq.
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| User: "Al Klein" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq |
11 Dec 2003 11:40:49 PM |
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On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:02:48 +1030, Michael Gray
<fleetg@newsguy.spam.com> posted in alt.atheism:
More evidence of yanks who have no idea that "9/11" has absolutely no
connection whatsoever with Iraq.
Don't tar us all with the same brush - some of us are actually awake.
--
"religion did for *****, what Stonehenge did for rocks"
- The World Famous Tink
(random sig, produced by SigChanger)
rukbat at optonline dot net
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq |
12 Dec 2003 08:43:58 PM |
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On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:02:48 +1030, Michael Gray
<fleetg@newsguy.spam.com>, Message ID:
<730gtvktvm0sio66rrprg512derdns0kpq@4ax.com> wrote in alt.atheism;
On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 20:26:33 -0800, stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote:
:
<snip>
:
...He, too, has had a
hard time for his stance, not least because he is from the city that was
the principal target of the 9/11 atrocities. "Some of my friends say
that I'm a traitor...
:
<snip>
:
More evidence of yanks who have no idea that "9/11" has absolutely no
connection whatsoever with Iraq.
Sadly, enough. They buy all the lies coming out of the White House.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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