thedrifter
01-28-04, 06:34 AM
Posted on Tue, Jan. 27, 2004
Unexplained kill zone
FATHER CAN'T GET A STRAIGHT ANSWER ABOUT HIS SON'S DEATH IN IRAQ
By Joe Rodriguez
Mercury News
The father of the fallen soldier had spent a long night talking with anti-war celebrities Robin Williams and Sean Penn, so he was bleary-eyed as he lit a cigarette on a busy sidewalk in San Francisco's Mission District.
``I'm really not used to this traveling and speaking,'' Fernando Suarez del Solar said in Spanish. ``But with practice, one gets better if not comfortable.''
His son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar Navarro, was killed in Iraq last year when he . . . well, the fuzzy details tell us how deliberately under-explained wars lead to tragic, unexplained deaths.
Two blocks up the street, we stop at a cafe offering yuppie coffee and Yucatecan cuisine. The short and stocky man from Escondido, a suburb of San Diego, snuffed out the cigarette butt, walked in and ordered a cappuccino.
His droopy eyes, framed by heavy eyebrows and a thick mustache, perked up as he began the story. It begins in a Tijuana slum several years ago.
A community activist at the time, Suarez had taken his son Jesus to meet families who needed health care, warm clothing, the usual things the poor lack. Later, Jesus said he wanted to help the poor another way, by joining the Marines anti-drug special forces.
``I told him it was a crazy idea,'' Suarez said. ``But that's how he wanted to do something good and worthwhile, so I supported his decision to join the military.''
After graduating from high school in San Diego, Jesus Suarez became a ``Green Card Marine,'' one of an estimated 37,000 immigrants in U.S. military forces.
According to the father, Jesus' anti-drug ambitions gradually gave way to changing military priorities; enlistees don't get to pick their assignments.
On a shopping visit to Tijuana just before shipping out for Iraq, Suarez said, his Marine son bought a statuette of a Guerrero Azteca, or Aztec warrior.
``He told me, `They were real soldiers because they fought face to face, not like in modern warfare, where men are killed long-distance by missiles and bombs.'''
The prophecy came true 10 months ago. The military first said Cpl. Suarez had been killed by an enemy bullet, but a reporter from the San Diego Union-Tribune in Iraq found out different. Jesus Suarez had stepped on a cluster bomblet, quite possibly an American bomblet.
Since then, Fernando Suarez said, he hasn't received a straight, formal explanation from the military about his son's death.
``Why would they lie to us?'' he asked, quickly suggesting the answer. ``Because they want the American people to believe Iraq is a threat to our security, that all of our soldiers are being killed by terrorists and only terrorists.''
Angered by the runaround, Suarez refused to bury his son in a military cemetery, declined posthumous citizenship for his son, and lost his job as a printing shop clerk for missing too much work to speak out against the war.
He was soon discovered by Global Exchange, a liberal outfit opposed to the war, which invited him and other parents of fallen soldiers to visit Iraq. Impressed by his public speaking, even in halting English, and his rapport with ordinary Iraqis, Global Exchange hired him for six months as an anti-war spokesman.
While he appreciates the sponsorship, Suarez said he's wary of becoming a short-lived, anti-war poster boy.
So he has big plans for ``Proyecto Guerrero Azteca,'' a foundation he's setting up for sending humanitarian aid to Iraq and offering scholarships to disadvantaged American youths, especially Latino kids who join the military mostly because it promises financial aid later for college.
``I'm proud that my son served his country,'' Suarez said. ``He enlisted for a good cause, to fight drugs, but he ended up dying in a war that wasn't necessary. That's the tragedy, isn't it?''
JOE RODRIGUEZ is a Mercury News columnist. His column appears Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at (408) 920-5767 or jrodriguez@mercurynews.com.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/joe_rodriguez/7806344.htm
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Unexplained kill zone
FATHER CAN'T GET A STRAIGHT ANSWER ABOUT HIS SON'S DEATH IN IRAQ
By Joe Rodriguez
Mercury News
The father of the fallen soldier had spent a long night talking with anti-war celebrities Robin Williams and Sean Penn, so he was bleary-eyed as he lit a cigarette on a busy sidewalk in San Francisco's Mission District.
``I'm really not used to this traveling and speaking,'' Fernando Suarez del Solar said in Spanish. ``But with practice, one gets better if not comfortable.''
His son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar Navarro, was killed in Iraq last year when he . . . well, the fuzzy details tell us how deliberately under-explained wars lead to tragic, unexplained deaths.
Two blocks up the street, we stop at a cafe offering yuppie coffee and Yucatecan cuisine. The short and stocky man from Escondido, a suburb of San Diego, snuffed out the cigarette butt, walked in and ordered a cappuccino.
His droopy eyes, framed by heavy eyebrows and a thick mustache, perked up as he began the story. It begins in a Tijuana slum several years ago.
A community activist at the time, Suarez had taken his son Jesus to meet families who needed health care, warm clothing, the usual things the poor lack. Later, Jesus said he wanted to help the poor another way, by joining the Marines anti-drug special forces.
``I told him it was a crazy idea,'' Suarez said. ``But that's how he wanted to do something good and worthwhile, so I supported his decision to join the military.''
After graduating from high school in San Diego, Jesus Suarez became a ``Green Card Marine,'' one of an estimated 37,000 immigrants in U.S. military forces.
According to the father, Jesus' anti-drug ambitions gradually gave way to changing military priorities; enlistees don't get to pick their assignments.
On a shopping visit to Tijuana just before shipping out for Iraq, Suarez said, his Marine son bought a statuette of a Guerrero Azteca, or Aztec warrior.
``He told me, `They were real soldiers because they fought face to face, not like in modern warfare, where men are killed long-distance by missiles and bombs.'''
The prophecy came true 10 months ago. The military first said Cpl. Suarez had been killed by an enemy bullet, but a reporter from the San Diego Union-Tribune in Iraq found out different. Jesus Suarez had stepped on a cluster bomblet, quite possibly an American bomblet.
Since then, Fernando Suarez said, he hasn't received a straight, formal explanation from the military about his son's death.
``Why would they lie to us?'' he asked, quickly suggesting the answer. ``Because they want the American people to believe Iraq is a threat to our security, that all of our soldiers are being killed by terrorists and only terrorists.''
Angered by the runaround, Suarez refused to bury his son in a military cemetery, declined posthumous citizenship for his son, and lost his job as a printing shop clerk for missing too much work to speak out against the war.
He was soon discovered by Global Exchange, a liberal outfit opposed to the war, which invited him and other parents of fallen soldiers to visit Iraq. Impressed by his public speaking, even in halting English, and his rapport with ordinary Iraqis, Global Exchange hired him for six months as an anti-war spokesman.
While he appreciates the sponsorship, Suarez said he's wary of becoming a short-lived, anti-war poster boy.
So he has big plans for ``Proyecto Guerrero Azteca,'' a foundation he's setting up for sending humanitarian aid to Iraq and offering scholarships to disadvantaged American youths, especially Latino kids who join the military mostly because it promises financial aid later for college.
``I'm proud that my son served his country,'' Suarez said. ``He enlisted for a good cause, to fight drugs, but he ended up dying in a war that wasn't necessary. That's the tragedy, isn't it?''
JOE RODRIGUEZ is a Mercury News columnist. His column appears Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at (408) 920-5767 or jrodriguez@mercurynews.com.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/joe_rodriguez/7806344.htm
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: