Anti-war woman's trip to see son serving in Iraq has surprises for both

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 3, 2004 | Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

[Cincinatus' Wife]

'Hey, Nick. Your mom's here.' Anti-war Alameda woman's trip to see son serving in Iraq has surprises for both

........Galleymore was more political as a young mother, taking her young children on protest marches during the Iran-Contra controversy of the mid- 1980s. Her children hung out with the progressive thinkers she met while working for a food policy organization. But Galleymore's activism faded as her children entered adolescence, her time eaten up by the demands of single motherhood.

And somewhere along the line, her children didn't absorb her political perspective.

After Nick finished his third year at San Francisco State University and had been accepted for transfer to UC Berkeley, he announced that he had joined the Army.

"It was a total surprise," Galleymore said. "It wasn't like he needed money for college. He was already three years in, so that doesn't hold water."

She dismissed Nick's volunteering as a phase; it wasn't. Her son not only wanted to be in the Army, he wanted to be in an elite unit. He passed up completing his college degree and left for boot camp on Independence Day weekend, 1999.

Galleymore still doesn't know exactly why. They could never fully discuss it.

In January 2003, Nick was shipped to Afghanistan. He had become an Army Ranger, a jump master for paratroopers and a sniper. He was in the thick of the action. Last Dec. 19, his 26th birthday, Nick called to say he was headed to Iraq. At that point, with U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians being killed almost daily, Galleymore began to panic. She couldn't sleep at night, "because I was thinking, 'My kid is going to get killed for something I don't believe in, and I don't think he knows what he's getting into.' "

She began talking with other military mothers, hoping to get their perspectives on how to cope. But many knew little about what was going on in Iraq. Frustrating her effort to learn more about Nick was that she felt the news reporting from the front lines was giving an overly rosy picture of the U. S. occupation.

At wit's end, she decided that the only way to calm her fears was to go to Iraq. She got in touch with Code Pink, which has led about a dozen parents to Iraq over the past few months. After holding a fund-raiser, which netted half of the trip's $2,200 cost, she left for Iraq on Jan. 24. ................

[proud American in Canada]

"You don't think that she loves her son? You don't think that he loves her?"

Since she gave birth to him, I'm sure she loves him as best as she apparently can, but merely giving birth does not a good parent make.

She went over there and found him (in defiance of what the military wanted), perhaps compromising his safety. Then she came back and used her trip to write anti-war propaganda designed to reduce support back home for the very cause for which her son is risking his life.

Her son is an adult and is living his life according to his values.

So is she. And apparently she values politics more than her son.

Just read the article she posted on the internet.

[proud American in Canada]

"She sure as hell isn't acting like it!"

exactly! please see my posts at #53 and, I think, 61.

[GBA]

This woman is an absolute nut case. She is from South Africa and the article says:

"She saw apartheid's inhumanity daily through their eyes, and she was repulsed by seeing work crews of black men shackled at the ankles along the roadside."

I take her comments to mean that she was against apartheid and would have supported those who would bring about its end. Yet when our troops remove Saddam and his evil dictatorship, thus liberating the Iraqi people from his reign of terror, she wrings her hands and frets. The article says this:

"She became a U.S. citizen in 1985, admitting that her view of the United States reflects the optimism of a new immigrant: "We need to live up to our ideals." Especially in Iraq."

I'd like to say that she's lost it, but I doubt she ever had it to begin with.

[sakic]

Maybe someday she'll understand that he doesn't want to see free women forced into wearing burquas.

Saddam was as scummy as they come but I think burqas were not part of required dress in Iraq. It was secular based not religious based.

[CTOCS]

"....as a female soldier took her earrings and left her lying in the street"

Bullsh**t......

[TrebleRebel]

Galleymore said Thursday she went to Iraq not only to close the distance between her and Nick, but between her and Iraqi mothers. She's researching a book about war's effects on mothers and children; she's logging her effort at www.motherspeak.org "I really do feel if we're going to have a peaceful world, at some point we need to be able to talk to one another."

They're all pacifists and socialists, until they see a chance to earn some money and cloak it as an effort to raise social awareness. She's exploiting her son, plain and simple.

[boxerblues]

Last June the company I work for was bidding on a reconstruction job and was looking for a group to go over. They knew I had a son over there and asked if I wanted to go just for the chance to see my son, when I mentioned this to my son he laughed at me and said please don't, but if you do bring lots of liquor. I didn't go but had some very long emails back & forth with him, he admitted he would of died of embarrassment at the thought of Mommy showing up in a war zone even though I fully supported what he was doing.

[proud American in Canada]

I love that story--thank you for sharing it. :) This made me literally laugh out loud:

"if you do bring lots of liquor."

Many thanks to your son for his service!

[submarinerswife]

So let me get this straight....

Her husband bagged-ass on her after 7 yrs of marriage.

Her son and daughter were dragged as young children to her protest marches.

Her son who could have attended Berkely but decided to join the service as a special forces soldier ...and she can't fatham the idea of him doing it because he "Didn't need the money for college"

In going over there she not only put her own ass on the line (where is a stray bullet when you need one)but she also risked the lives of those who would have instinctively risked their lives to protect her.

She shamed her son in front of his unit.

If this poor excuse of a mother can't be proud of her son for his decisions to think for himself, then I will proud of him in place of her.

NICK, YOU ARE MY HERO. AND I AM PROUD OF YOU AND YOUR SERVICE! God Speed!

[mtbopfuyn]

yet she was stunned by a story told by the first Iraqi mother she interviewed.

Barf alert. Talk about a set up. Honestly, the very FIRST mother she interviewed. And just who/how was this interview arranged?

Anwar Kadhun Jeward said her husband, her 18-year-old son, her 14-year-old and 8-year-old daughters were cut down before her eyes by a hail of random gunfire from U.S. troops one night last summer.

Yep, random gunfire into the night happens all the time. What were they doing at night driving around an American unit? How fast were they driving toward the gate after being told to halt?

Her 10-year-old daughter, unwounded, played dead as a female soldier took her earrings and left her lying in the street, Jeward claimed.

Puleeze. That last sentence sent the whole story right over the top. If Galleymore was so worried about her relationship with her son, she's certainly going about it the wrong way. And she wonder's why her friends have turned against her. Berkeley, whadda expect.

[boxerblues]

He did get his liquor, its amazing how much Jack Daniels looks like Listerine lol

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Yes, extreme liberals are mentally ill.

[McGavin999]

Nick, I salute you, you are one fine young man.

[sakic]

Okay. You're all right. She hopes her son dies to help her book sales.

Satisfied?

[sakic]

I truly believe she loves only HERSELF, and considered her children EXTENSIONS of her ego.

You're entitled to your beliefs.

[q_an_a]

This is a perfect example of the self centered life style of the privaleged Americans. "I don't care what my children are thinking or doing or even what they say. My concerns are all I want to act on and I will not let facts or the opinions of other get in my way." This is also the motto of the RAT party!!

[cynicom]

Nick has one thing going for him. His Mothers genes were repressed.