Nearly 200,000 mothers have watched their child go off to war since the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. Some of them have supported their child’s patriotic service and sacrifice with pride, while others have condemned the war and its cause, angry at those responsible for sending their loved ones across the world to fight. But all of these mothers—regardless of their political sentiment or affiliation—share a common connection: the unmistakable longing for their child’s safety and the powerlessness they feel for an inability to protect and shelter them any longer.
My Child: Mothers of War, directed by Angeliki Giannakopoulos, is a groundbreaking documentary in progress that focuses entirely on the mothers of our American Soldiers serving in Iraq.
Six years have brought many changes to all of us I think. That which I once believed has been greatly affected by my son’s continuing deployments to the middle east, by that which he has shared and more frghteningly by that which remains unspoken. The political agenda is reminding me more and more of Vietnam. Where there once was a strong belief that we were helping an oppressed society, we were thwarting terrorism, there is now frustration, anger and disillusionment. I have great fear of his next deployment and live with the hope that it will not happen.