INTERVIEW WITH LINDA DANN

Linda Dann� son, �ob,�is due to go into the National Guard next year. A recruiter signed him up on a West Virginia campus soon after 9/11.

Linda: My father was a Machine Gun Sergeant in WW II so I grew up in a household that was very influenced by war. I saw war's toll on my father. He was known as a great war hero to people in our town. People used to stop me on the streets and ask if I knew what a hero my dad was but no one outside of the family saw the other side of that heroism. He was a hero but he never felt like one. He also suffered from "shell shock" we call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder now � and he would talk to me about his war experiences.

He had a nervous breakdown when I was about fourteen. During that time he told me that the war would never go away, that it would never stop. I didn� know what was going on with my dad but I listened and tried to make sense of what he was saying.

Sometimes his war buddies came over to our house and they talked for hours about the war. It was kind of hush-hush but I� hear bits here and there. I thought all families were influenced by the war to the extent that ours was. Later I learned that was not the case and that my father suffered tremendously throughout his life from that experience. 

Even on his deathbed his last thoughts were of the war and the many, many dead friends and colleagues he left there. I sat with him as he was dying and he contorted his face into one death grimace after another as he listed each friend� name and recounted the deaths and the battlefield scenes of that time.

My father influenced my son too. He talked about the war with Bob and Bob saw him as the bravest, most eccentric, most funny man he� ever known. I countered by telling Bob he couldn� enlist in the military and he agreed he wouldn�. Bob has ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) so I repeated this to him many times. I even took Bob to Quaker meetings when he was five-years-old to get him Conscientious Objector status!

But, after 9/11, he enlisted anyway. He didn� tell me about it. I found out when I heard my daughter telling one of her friends on the phone that Bob enlisted in the National Guard. I went crazy and had a kind of nervous breakdown. Now, as I watch the news, or read about another soldier killed there, I think of my kid.

Bob knows now that this is a rotten war and that we have no reason to be in Iraq. But he loves the idea of the military although I think he doesn� understand the reality of the current military. He saw a video of me talking against the war and occupation and he was hurt. I told him about a young Marine I� talked to who told me he fears having kids because of what he was exposed to in Iraq, like Depleted Uranium and who knows what other chemicals from our weapons. He seems disillusioned with this country but also he has a hard time believing what he� hearing.

I know of one young fellow who is now in Germany healing from wounds and burns sustained in Iraq. He saw his best friend blow up right next to him by an IED and he� terribly traumatized by his experiences there. He does not want to go back. But, the military, in all its wisdom, tells him that he should face his traumas by going back to Iraq to finish the job. They�e actually sending him back there!

I live in terror for my son and for the sons and daughters of other parents. I cry a lot. Whenever I see my son, I cry. He asks me if I� just a little bit proud of him and his decision. Of course I� proud of him. But I wish he wasn� signed up. I love him so much and can� bear to think of him over there. To think that these bastards can send him to die over there for no reason. It makes my blood boil.

Besides everything else, our policies and actions are only making things worse in terms of international terrorism. Don� get me wrong, I believe we need a defensive military. Also certain young people seem to have an affiliation for the military. How many of them say, � don� believe in this war but I stand by my buddies� This sentiment and idealism is exploited by the military.

I was active during the 1980s against the Iran Contra affair and the wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Then I became disillusioned and paid less attention to politics. Silly me! Progressives lost an amazing amount of ground in the last two decades and the Right took advantage of that.

These days I bargain with God. I tell him that I�l never go passive again! If He just ends this crisis in the best way possible, by bringing our troops home, I�l remain an activist until I die.