Military Families Speak Out on Afghanistan War | The Episcopal Peace Fellowship

MILITARY FAMILIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY
PROTEST PRESIDENT OBAMA’S DECISION TO ESCALATE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

December 3, 2009 – Following President Obama’s announcement of increased troop levels in Afghanistan, members of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) and Gold Star Families Speak Out (GSFSO) expressed outrage and deep sadness by speaking out and taking part in protest actions across the country. While the military community is frequently tight-lipped about policy decisions, these military families broke that code of silence to publicly decry the President’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

MFSO members Linda and Phil Waste of Shellman Bluff, Georgia, describe how their families’ sense of duty to serve this country and their faith in President Obama has been abused:

We have lived in terror for over eight years now. Three of our sons and three grandchildren have served in the Army in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Our family has endured multiple deployments, extended deployments, stop loss, and the unconscionable practice of pressured reenlistment while in country. At present we have a grandson in Iraq and a granddaughter in Afghanistan. We believe all our sons suffer from some degree of PTSD, one more severe than the others. Our granddaughter is on all kinds of medication for PTSD, and yet is in Afghanistan on her 3rd deployment!

We worked hard to get President Obama elected and sent money out of our retirement to support his election. His many words of ‘hope’ did indeed give us ‘hope’, however, his deeds dashed our hopes on the rocks of more death and destruction of continued wars. The only sane solution is to bring the troops home now!

GSFSO members Kevin and Joyce Lucey of Belchertown, Massachusetts, whose son Jeffrey suffered severe psychological injuries of war and committed suicide after being denied proper care from the Veteran’s Administration, questioned President Obama about this surge in a recent open letter:

You talk of war talk but what of veterans’ care? Our loved ones still lack the care they desperately need. What of the way you continue to treat families of suicides? You stated that you sign letters to all those who lose their lives due to this war. That is not true due to the fact that you continue to refuse to send letters to those loved ones’ families who have committed suicide. The number of these families continues to grow as the military suicides rates rise to unprecedented levels, yet you ignore these families as your predecessor did. Where is the change?

You offer up not troops but citizens of this nation – our loved ones; you are sacrificing them. And for what? Have you any concept of the pain, grief, loss and destruction this policy will create and prolong?

MFSO and GSFSO members protested and responded to the President’s announcement Tuesday evening at venues across the country: speaking at a demonstration in West Point in New York; holding a press conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota; gathering together in Long Beach, California to watch the speech and share reflections with local and national press; holding vigils in New Jersey and other areas. Protests continued across the country on December 2nd, where members of Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out shared personal experiences with the human cost of the current wars and the urgent need to bring them to an end.

Members of Military Families Speak Out, including families with loved ones currently in Afghanistan or those facing deployment or redeployment, along with members of Gold Star Families Speak Out, whose loved ones have died as a result of these wars, are available for interview.

To arrange for an interview, contact Deborah Forter at Military Families Speak Out, 617-983-0710 or press@mfso.org

Military Families Speak Out is a national organization of over 4,000 families who are opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and have loved ones serving or who have served in the military since 2001. For more information, see http://www.mfso.org. Gold Star Families Speak Out is a chapter of MFSO whose members’ loved ones have died as a result of the current wars. For more information see http://www.gsfso.org.