For Love of a Soldier

Interviews

Military Families Taking Action Against the Iraq War

By Jane Collins

Daniel Ellsberg:

Family members of soldiers in Iraq speak here—often out of anguish and with breathtaking candor—in hopes that others won't have to, as one puts it, "know what it's like to have someone[they love] in harm's way for no good reason." Their moving stories demonstrate what it means to have a personal stake in the outcome of the current administration's war, showing the steps that ordinary Americans have taken to bring an end to the fighting and to bring their loved ones home."

Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon

Papers

James Skelly:

"If you want to know what families experience when their children go off to war, read this book! These are your neighbors— people just stepping out of their regular lives to make a point. Listening to them will help put war in its human context, something many in Washington seem incapable of doing."

James Skelly, senior fellow at the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College is a former U.S. Navy officer who refused to serve in Vietnam. He sued the U.S. Secretary of Defense for release from military service

Charles B. Strozier:

"For Love of a Soldier collects stories of Americans who love their country and sent their loved ones to fight for it. It is the moving story of the absolute intriguing ordinariness that motivates our loved ones to join the military and fight in far-off lands. But most of all For Love of a Soldier is the pained story of military families who detest the war in Iraq and feel nothing but disdain for our leaders who have taken us into it. This wonderful book should be read by all Americans."

Charles B. Strozier is a professor of history at John Jay College and the Graduate Center at CUNY. He is author of "Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America", and father of sons who served in both the Gulf and Iraq wars.

For Love of a Soldier contains the stories of 29 people whose family members; spouses, siblings and children, are serving or have served in the American military during the Iraq War. The families tell their stories and explain why they believe that taking action to end American military involvement in Iraq is the best possible way to support the troops who are so dear to them.

The passionate and articulate individuals whose interviews make up the body of the book include spouses and

parents of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, a couple with eight children and grandchildren who have served or are currently serving in Iraq, the parents who have formed an organization of anti-war families, parents whose children have been killed or maimed in the war, and parents whose children have committed suicide after returning home from the war.

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About the Author

Jane Collins is a writer and researcher who has contributed to "Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists" and "Against U.S. Foreign Policy Post-9/11", both edited by Mary Susannah Robbins.