Thanks, George.
Brennan's Mother: I was in Kandahar when I read Brennan's letter the first time. My thought processes mirrored some of the other posters' comments.
I cannot speak for them, but I can explain my own, which probably are not too far off of theirs.
Firstly, I appreciate your concern as a parent - I am one too - and your need to speak out. I can see your point of view quite clearly.
Were you able to see this from ours, you would perhaps better understand what was said here back then. We are not just big meanies picking on your son.
The vast majority of us thoroughly believe in what we are doing there. Despite the cost in lives and health - and this cost is very real and near to us, as these are our friends and colleagues - and personal risk to ourselves, enthusiasm still remains extremely high.
We see a lot of uninformed opinion being expressed in the media, by people who have no clue what the situation is really like and what we are accomplishing, and have obviously never been there to see it for themselves. We see it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and we have long since tired of it. Naturally, we treat this with the scorn that it deserves.
You saw that as the initial reaction here. My reaction was the same.
We saw no difference between his letter and hundreds of others. Had his age been mentioned, that reaction may not have occurred, or would at least have been markedly different. There is a huge difference between someone of Brennan's age and the adult numpties spewing nonsense, as there has been enough good journalism that they should know better. They have no excuse for their wilful ignorance.
We would not hold a young lad to the standard that we would expect of an adult, but there was nothing in his letter to indicate his age.
The second reaction came as we realized Brennan's age. For someone so young, it was very well written (if inaccurate, factually), so perhaps you can understand some of us being a little skeptical. My boys are about the same age, and I'd be surprised (and delighted) if one of them wrote something so eloquent. In this case, you may well take the disbelief and skepticism to be a significant compliment, even if it was not so intended. Even mistaking him for an adult should be a compliment.
Having just re-read his letter, I remain impressed by his writing ability, and by his concern. I hope that you take pride in those, as you should.
