16,000 Single Moms in Iraq

Yearning to Be Whole Again
By Donna St. George
The Washington Post
http://snipurl.com/13d0n
Friday 24 November 2006
[...]
When war started in Iraq, a generation of U.S. women became involved as never before - in a wider-than-ever array of jobs, for long deployments, in a conflict with daily bloodshed. More than 155,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among their ranks are more than 16,000 single mothers, according to the Pentagon, a number that military experts say is unprecedented.

How these women have coped and how their children are managing have gone little-noticed as the war stretches across a fourth year.

"It has to be one of the hardest things that a mom and her children have to go through," said Steven Mintz, a University of Houston professor with an expertise in family life. "You can't cuddle a young child over the phone, and you can't cuddle a child through e-mail."

In the military, parental status is not a barrier to serving in a war. All deploy when the call comes - single mothers, single fathers, married couples - relying on a "family-care plan" that designates a caregiver for children when parents are gone.


SG: HMMMmmm .... Family Values, a 'POOR Example', I guess.

Someone ought ta try and get another 'Murphy Brown'-like quote from Dan Qyayle on this. Since his Family Values were so disturbed by Single Moms, how would he feel about No Mom, PARENTLESS Families ... keepin' Tax Cuts for the (R)ich Safe in America

Snerd