A Mother's Pride: The War In My Town

What would you say if your son, 32 and recently married, told you in December of 2003, as the insurgency heated up in Iraq, that he had just enlisted in the United States Army?

Now he's 35, has a 10-month-old son, and is ... no great surprise ... in Iraq.

How would you feel? Alarmed and terrified, that your flesh-and-blood is on the line in George Bush's great, tragic misadventure in Iraq, when everyone just wants to pull out? Angry?

"I was just filled with pride. He put it to us that it was his duty and he was going," said Marion Beckwith of Marshfield, Mass. Her son, Spec. Bryan Beckwith, is with the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad. As a mother, she's frightened. But as a mother and an American, she recognizes that some things come first.

Bryan Beckwith is like a lot of soldiers we only hear occasionally. The ones who enlisted in mid-life, after the invasion of Iraq. I know some others. Their reasons are complex. Bryan's family says he hasn't talked much about it. He didn't drape himself in the flag. He discussed it with his wife for a year, he signed on the line, and then he told his parents.

"He said he was able to, so he should," said his wife Leslie, at home with their 10-month-old son John Charles, named after his grandfathers. "He wouldn't use the word patriotic, but that was what he was trying to say."

A graduate of New Hampshire's Plymouth State College, Bryan had figured out in short order that he didn't like office life. He spent the late 1990s landscaping and working at ski areas to support his new passion. The rugged life, as much life as you can take from it. He hiked the Appalachian Trail and met Leslie, a Delta flight attendant, on the way. Both of them hiked it again, and then the Pacific Crest Trail. Sept. 11 happened, and then the invasion of Iraq. He had met some old soldiers on the trail who talked about the soldier's life. He remembered his own dream of living it.

"We were stunned. He really surprised us," his father, John Beckwith, said about the cal he got in December, 2003. "You worry about what could happen. But I was extremely proud of what he was doing."

You may have read about the alarm some military parents felt last week when they heard about President Bush's aggressive new strategy. The Beckwiths received it with the kind of quiet determination their son has exhibited.

"We'd love to have him home. But even he would think that is not going to work," said John Beckwith, who likes the plan Bush laid out last week and is impressed by Gen. David Petraeus, the man chosen to execute it.

"He wants to complete the mission," Beckwith said about his son. Of pulling out, he said, "It's unthinkable. What would follow?"

Leslie Beckwith has supported her husband all the way, though she doesn't like the war he is a part of, and has never been a fan of Bush and his policies. But of the controversy over Bush's war plan, she said, "I wish they could pull them out, but I'm not sure it would be the right thing."

Marion Beckwith says the president's "heart has always been in the right place ... Congress and a lot of the American people are looking at the shorter picture. The administration is looking at what we need to do to prevent future attacks."

Which is where their son and husband comes in.


Crossposted at www.bostonherald.com.

Postscript: The Beckwiths live about a mile from my house in Marshfield, Massachusetts, and used to be my nextdoor neighbors. I think of them when I hear about how much America hates this war and wants out. I figured it was time the rest of you get to know them. No hoo-ah flag-waving, nothing like that. Just good neighbors that you can rely on. We've had people like that in my town going back to King Phillip's War.

Some Iraq/GWOT developments:

Meet KIA Maj. Mike Mundell, via Solder's Angel. And make sure you visit angel's main page for what you can do.

Jason Dunham earned his Medal of Honor by giving his life to save his friends. By his death, he shows us how one lives one's life.

A Lumberjack in the Desert down a few digits, and due to lose more, but still typing. Blackfive tells you where you can donate.

Bush: "To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible."

Bush: Toppling Saddam was no mistake.

Gateway on who the US raid in Irbil snagged. Dan Riehl wants American liberals to know what the Iranian Islamists think about them.

WSJ, Daniel Henninger: "The Petraeus command is the overdue beginning of the counterinsurgency."

WaPo: The fight with al-Sadr starts within the ranks of the Iraqi Army.

In the Captain's Quarters, a thoughtful counterpoint to surge.

CO of Marine RCT7 running the worst parts of Anbar describes progress. As you'll recall did Roggio, embedded there.

"I went to Iraq Prepared to Die ..." A soldier's thoughts as he considers signing up again.

"This was how Baghdad looked to me." Mohammed, at the incomparable Iraq the Model.

Ron Rosenbaum at Pajamasmedia talks about Iraq and Cambodia, and the Soviet lies he believed when he was young.

Barcepundit, a small light in a nation that has surrendered to the darkness of terrorism, knows of what he speaks.

Ronery. She's so ronery. The Weekly Standard would have you believe that Hillary has not repudiated her October 2002 vote to invade Iraq and now occupies the lonely middle. But I think she did, and still, Clintonesque, wants it both ways.

Buyer's regret, wanting it both ways, or is McCain just saying too much to the wrong people?

Somalia: America's Boots on the Ground.

I hate to send anyone to my sworn enemy, The Boston Glob, but you have to read this: Dems want to shutter war prisons. I suggest boarding al-Qaeda suspects with Dem Cong.

Talabani: Overcoming sectarian violence is Iraq's job. Terrorism, everyone's job. Thank you, Bush, for the help.

Just go read everything at Castle Argghhh!!! especially if you're a right-wing gun nut.