Flat Daddy on the Homefront

As deployments for the military continue to stretch, the stay-at-home mom is trying to stem the tear drops of their children by building a Flat Daddy. Sometimes, it's the other way around-- the stay-at-home dad builds a Flat Mommy. This is a life-size paper doll, often on foam board, with a photo of their loved one. The deployed soldier sometimes get a Flat Kid-- a life-sized representation of their child to take to the barracks.

I cannot fault them for wanting this visual reinforcement. But these one-dimensional images are also a pathetic reminder of the disproportionate cost of this war to a narrow segment of our population. And the cost is not just in soldiers killed or maimed but also in kids who grow up in one-parent households. It once agains makes hollow claims that the current administration is the protector of family values, as a family sundered by a war of choice is anything but consistent with family values. The legacy of this war with its divided families are families at risk, and I predict we will see a surge of disfunction. The collateral damage of Bush's war will be spikes in divorce, drug abuse, teenage crime, and drop outs.