That’s right. I had to sit at home every day for a year, knowing that my child was in harm’s way every single minute of each of those days.
It was then, and remains, the most difficult time I have lived through in my 69 years of life.
So, my heart now goes out to all the mothers who have a child involved in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
My heart weeps for the moms in Russia, who have seen their sons drafted to fight. The ones who had sons at University who were ordered into the military as well as the ones who had sons in prison, even for minor offences, who were likewise forced to fight.
My heart weeps for the moms in Ukraine who had sons kidnapped and conscripted right off the street, because so many Ukrainian soldiers have already died.
My heart even weeps for the moms in North Korean who have seen their sons sent off to fight in a conflict that has nothing to do with them, other than the fact that Russian made some kind of deal with their government for soldiers.
I’m not going to cite specific numbers, because no one can definitively say exactly how many soldiers from either side have been killed. Both sides inflate the number of opposition forces have died, while downplaying their own.
I feel very differently about the war in Iraq than I did when my kid was there. I feel very differently about the war mongers who send anyone’s children off to fight anywhere, while lining their own pockets with profits from any war machine.
If you think wars these days are fought over anything noble (if indeed they ever were), you’re fooling yourself. They are 100% about money and power for the people running things.
In the case of the Ukraine war, no one can say where a very large part of the money has even gone. There’s never been any accountability for any of it.
It is true however, that Ukraine has clocked more sales of high end luxury automobiles than any other country in Europe these last years. Unrelated, right?
Now that we’ll have a new administration in a few weeks, I hope the next time that Zelensky shows up with his hand out, that he gets what he deserves. Nothing.
I’m willing to bet today’s war moms agree with me.
