The pacifist Quaker group American Friends Service Committee is currently on tour with an exhibition they call: Eyes Wide Open : An Exhibition on the Human Cost of the Iraq War.

This exhibit would be distasteful in any case; it’s clearly designed to use the identities of soldiers killed in Iraq to damage morale in the US. But yesterday I received the following email from an LGF reader, revealing another side of the exhibit that qualifies it as a real outrage. The AFSC’s faux concern for fallen soldiers apparently doesn’t include asking their family members for permission.

Dear Friends,

My name is Michael Becker, I live in Phoenix, AZ and my son is a US Marine.

I am writing to you because it has come to my attention thru several Marine Corps family support groups to which I belong that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is sponsoring a tour of an exhibit they call “Eyes Wide Open”. As I understand the exhibit, they have acquired combat boots and attached a name label for each fallen soldier, sailor and Marine in Iraq.

I - many of us, actually - have real objections to this display. The primary reason, from our perspective, is that AFSC has not contacted any of the families of the fallen to request their permission to use their service member’s name in their tour. We consider this to be an outrage, and is an affront to our belief that the war in Iraq is both just and is yielding very positive results in the Middle East.

We feel AFSC, with this tour, is attempting to associate our fallen heros with their effort at an anti-war protest. I have sent two emails asking for clarification and requesting that they contact the families of the fallen to get permission to use their names. I am aware of at least 5 other similar requests. AFSC has not responded.

I am aware that they will have the “tour” in Dallas in the next couple of weeks. I am also aware that a protest is being organized and that a number of Gold Star families will be requesting the name tags of their fallen service member at that event.

I’m writing to you for two reasons. First, I believe you folks actually care about our troops and their families. Second, you’ve got clout, we’re just military families that AFSC could not care less about.

I am asking that you take a look at this display, contact AFSC and see if they will justify their actions to you. We would just like to get some light on the subject. If there are families of fallen who support AFSC and their tour, we have no problem with their service member’s names being used in the tour. We simply feel that each family should have the opportunity to be NOT represented in this tour de farce if they do not agree with AFSC.

Thank you for the great job you do reporting and commenting on the news.

Sincerely,

Michael Becker
Phoenix, AZ
Proud father of LCpl Josh, the best man we know…