INTERVIEW WITH WICKIE BOWMAN
Wickie Bowman� son, Eric, flies Apache helicopter gun-ships in Afghanistan.
Wickie: At one point two of my five children were in the military. Paul was in the Marines and Eric in the Army, each for four years. After their discharge Eric join the National Guard. He took the opportunity that was offered to train as an Apache helicopter pilot; I think he may have been influenced by my father� heroic history as a WWII bomber.
Four of my children are pro-Bush, pro-war Republicans while one daughter has similar sentiments as me. She works for Amnesty International and is against this war, as am I. I�e always been a pacifist and I mull over how my views diverged so far from those of most of my children; perhaps its because children rebel from their parents. There� also the possibility that their lives in Apartheid South Africa influenced their thinking when their father, my ex-husband, spirited them out of this country to avoid our joint custody agreement.
When The War on Terror began, Paul told Eric, � wouldn't go to fight. It� not worth it.�And that� from a Republican.
Eric knows my point of view. I agreed with Paul and thought the war was a bad idea. Eric thought I wasn� supporting him but I said, �ou understand how I feel about this war but that doesn� mean I don� support your or the rest of the troops. I do.�/p>
My daughter will marry Sam, a wonderful man from Iraq, and it makes me sick to hear the sorts of humiliating discrimination he encounters from people in this country. Not only that, we haven� told our extended family that she�l marry him, simply because we�e concerned about how they�l treat him and my daughter.
Sam has family in Iraq and he sends money to his family in Baghdad �just so they can survive �and he has to do it secretly, through his sisters who don� mention that it� from him.
After 9/11 Sam offered his services as a translator to the government. They did a thorough background check on him, found out he was from Iraq and turned him down.
Once he was talking to his family on the phone and the FBI turned up on his doorstep, came into the house and questioned him about his loyalties, his relatives, and so on. He had to hang up the phone.
He� been stopped and grilled at airports. The last time I picked him and my daughter up at the airport a policeman kept staring at me then gave me a ticket for double parking.
I told him, �his is racial profiling pure and simple.�/p>
This is still a free country with freedom of speech and I have the right to say what I want. At the same time, none of this is totally new to me. I marched against the war in Vietnam and I was called, �npatriotic�and told I was not a �ood�American. Nevertheless, I felt I had a right to express the way I felt.
I� a teacher in a school for special needs children and, at the start of this war, I wrote an article for our school newspaper asking, �hat is war? Isn� it the systematic killing of other human beings?�/p>
Some readers went berserk and sent hate mail. I felt vindicated by one of our students who said, �ar is not correct and killing other people is wrong.�/p>
At the same time, a few of our special needs children have issues with anger and violence and some folks just don� get it. An ex-Marine started an ROTC program for the kids and brought a humvee with gun turrets onto the campus. They kids were all over it, playing with the gun, having a great time. In response I bring newspapers into class and read articles to the kids to start discussions. They enjoy it.
My son Eric has two girls of eight and six years old. Of course, he talks more to his wife and kids than he talks to me but, when we do talk, I hear sadness in his voice. He� very shut down and it scares me. He� only been in Afghanistan for a little over one month and his wife tells me that he� not the same person anymore.
When the scandalous behavior at Abu Ghraib prison was spread over all the newspapers in the world, I looked carefully at the faces of the troops involved, trying to figure out what made them do it. What if my kid did that?
I must say that I watched the Nick Berg tragedy and there is something very odd about it. My daughter sends me articles that she� found and the whole thing is very suspicious. Upon reflection, I think it bothers me because he was in an Abu Ghraib orange prison uniform, was sitting in the same chairs that you see our soldiers at the prison sitting in, and most doctors who have looked at the photos say the beheading was a fake. No spurting blood, the head could not have been severed that cleanly, etc. Also, the men had lily white hands, and were standing at the military rest position used by our soldiers. There is also the case of the gold wedding ring on one of the soldiers. Could Berg have been about to spill the beans? Who knows?
I can� watch the news anymore. There is no long-term plan for Iraq. Now even Chalabi is on the shit list. What can we turn over the Iraq on June 30th? There� nothing worthwhile to hand over. I don� see how we can pull the troops and leave Iraq in the terrible chaos we�e created over there.
My worst fear is that one month before the November presidential election we�l suddenly be presented with WMD, fait accompli, a cache of weapons will turn up in some out of the way spot.
I� so worried about this country. Our accumulated loss of freedom is now grossly blatantly yet people seem to be in denial. The Patriot Act, Homeland Security; where will it end?
Americans have no sense of history and people appear proud of that. All� we get are Right-wing talking heads on TV. I think back to Clinton being impeached for sex yet George Bush� actions are so much more obscene.
Lately, I feel so helpless and I hate to feel that way. Leaving the US feels more and more like a viable option to me. Perhaps I can go and live in Madrid?