Front Page > Issues > 2005> March

Military Families Speak Out

By Lila Zucker

As activists around the country organize to demand an end to the war, many families dread a knock on their door. It tells of children, parents and loved ones who have been killed or injured in the continuing violence in Iraq. No parent should have to bury their child or fear a knock on the door or a single phone call. Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is composed of family members of those serving in the military. Families that are tired of being worried about what may happen next or heartbroken at losing a loved one are speaking up about this war and the Bush administration and saying the best and only way to truly support the troops is to bring them home now.

MFSO was created to “give military families a voice” says mother and activist Adele Kubein. “We thought if we spoke out we could prevent the Iraq war.” Within days of its first press conference over 200 members had joined. Now, over 2,000 families from all over the country make up the organization, which was started in the fall of 2002. There are currently over 150,000 troops deployed to Iraq and though 2,000 may seem like a large number it is a small percentage of the military families. Many, says Kubein, are scared they aren’t respecting their family members by joining the group and speaking out. Those that are speaking out are well organized and determined. Before the invasion of Iraq, MFSO met with members of the Senate, wrote letters, held vigils, and 15 parents even filed a lawsuit against President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld to try and prevent the war in an effort to do everything they could to protect their loved ones.

MFSO has a number of fronts they are currently working on. One is their campaign to approach every governor to bring them facts about the effects on the state when the Guard is away. When the Guard is shipped out, says Kubein, equipment is out of the state; and people such as EMTs, police, and firefighters are often members of the Guard and leave the community under-protected. The social consequences are huge, with large numbers of families left without a wage earner and the very serious effects of posttraumatic stress to the community upon return. MFSO brings attention to our foreign policy and “are the first organization to expose the lack of equipment, water and food for the soldiers, the huge numbers of suicides and the true dangers [in Iraq]. We have the courage to keep – as vocally s possible – saying it’s not the way it seems [over there],” explains Kubein. The best way to support the troops, members say, is to not to send them into a reckless war. The mission of MFSO is to bring the troops home immediately and, once they are home, to treat them well as they all deserve. “War should be the last resort, not the first,” says Kubein.

MFSO has a distinct role, as do its members, in the peace and justice community. While we all talk about the horrible loss so many American and Iraqi families face, many of us have not experienced it for ourselves. We have not heard the knock on the door or suffered the loss or injury of a loved one. Military Families Speak Out do a job no one should be asked to do, yet unfortunately with the current state of affairs, it is an essential one. As the second anniversary of the war approaches the only thing to do is to learn from their actions; to mourn the losses on both sides by organizing to make sure there are no more.

Lila Zucker is a high school student, Radical Cheerleader and writer.