Posted on 03/03/2005 10:25:18 AM PST by SmithL
An Army soldier with Cocke County ties has died in Iraq, a loss that leaves his mother bitterly critical of the U.S.-led operation.
"He was there two weeks and three days I feel like his life was wasted," Patricia Brady said Wednesday of Pfc. Daniel Anderson, who died Sunday. "A lot of people say he's a hero, but to me his life was wasted along with many others."
Brady, who lives in the Hartford community, said she and her son had spoken at length about his decision first to join the Army and then to serve in Iraq.
"I am very much a pacifist," she said. "Danny knew this, but it was his decision."
Anderson was so fond of life as a soldier he returned to his high school in Texas to speak to students about a military career, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Anderson, who had visited his family in Cocke County and North Carolina several times over the past several years, was killed in a shootout at a Baghdad checkpoint.
Brady said a casualty assistance officer said her son was manning the checkpoint when a car with five occupants tried to speed through.
Gunfire erupted and Anderson was killed.
The 29-year-old Texas native was a member of the 3rd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Stewart, Ga. according to the Caller-Times.
More than 1,500 U.S. service personnel have died since the conflict began almost two years ago.
Anderson leaves behind a wife, a 6-year-old stepson and a 6-month-old son, Noah.
"She isn't taking it very well," Brady said of her daughter-in-law. "I've only talked to her once, but I know it's been very difficult for her."
Brady said her son's body is in transit from the Middle East and that the funeral will take place in his native Corpus Christi.
For Brady, the funeral will be one final reminder of her view of war.
"We've been fighting war for how many thousands of years for peace and look where we are," she said. "We have to learn how to get along."
Of which, the MSM is ALL TO EAGER TO REPORT
Does anyone else find it odd that this woman has only spoken to her son's wife once since his death?
Bless you and your sons....and thank them for us.
"His life was wasted"
Sadly we'll never really know whether this was true or not. If no terrorist attack happens, the left will say "See there was no threat" and if one does they'll say "See we told you it was all a waste anyway"
And why is this news, but the > 1000 families who know their fallen loved ones did not live nor die in vain get no coverage?
Given that the mother is an admitted pacifist, I would guess there was some tension between the two families anyway.
Pacifists, the ultimate free-loaders. The most perverse creation of modernism.
Amen! Here's something that I came across this morning that expands on that.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better persons than himself." John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873
God bless this brave soldiers wife in her time of need. The Lord knows she'll receive little support from her mother-in-law.
Thank you Daniel for your service. You will not be forgotten and your life was sacrificed in a worthy cause. You have the gratitude of this nation and the new Iraqi nation as well.
"I am very much a pacifist," she said. "Danny knew this, but it was his decision."
Danny obviously was a good man, who didn't consider his life a waste.
My prayers of thanks for Pfc. Daniel Anderson and my prayers for God's healing Grace on his mother.
True. And if she did have a close, healthy relationship with her son, would she be making this type of public statement about him? I can understand that she is a pacifist and that she hates everything about the war, but I don't think that a loving mother would even consider saying publicly that her son's life was wasted no matter how strong her feelings were against the war.
My prayers are with her. She and her son have made the supreme sacrifice.
Not in this case. She's angry that he disobeyed her wishes. He was his own man and despite 29 years of life, his mommy never wanted to let go. The woman is mentally ill and is desecrating his humanity, his dignity and his heroism!
And, more irritating, is this hate-filled human debris will use and abuse her son's sacrifice for her own fortune, fame and agenda. It's just so SICK.
Bless his widow and their sons. RIP, Pfc.
I would not hold any mother accountable for the words she utters right after the death of her child.
Been there.
Anyone whose child dies before them for any reason has feelings that their child's life was "wasted", certainly not lived to the fullest.
Most of us just don't have the mainstream media pounding at our doors, calling us on the phone, or shoving a microphone in front of us, hoping to get an anti-war, anti-Bush or anti-government statement.
The mother doesn't get it yet. Her very brave son died to help protect her right to be an anti-war pacifist. Talk about a paradox.
Well said Smith, ......prayers to his wife, kids and friends.....
A cardinal rule: Never, ever, ever, hold anything a grieving parent says against them.
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