| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:47 am Post subject: Cindy Sheehan's letter to Nightline about PNAC Neocon cabal |
| In Defense of Cindy Sheehan:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6975
Patrick Buchanan: Cindy Sheehan: Anti-war catalyst:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45815
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Stand with Cindy Sheehan:
http://www.meetwithcindy.org/
http://www.jregrassroots.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15853
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC20Ak07.html
http://drudgereport.com/flash3cs.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics/browse_frm/thread/69114caa8c197079/41d9eeb37c34ec4a?lnk=arm#41d9eeb37c34ec4a
Media Begins To Take Notice
Mother's message eventually sinks in
http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&msg_recent=&rid=20405
by Jennifer Monroe
CRAWFORD, TX -- (OfficialWire) -- 08/11/05 -- In a hard-hitting letter
(click to read) sent to Nightline producers following a 'Townhall
Meeting' broadcast in March 2005, Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S.
soldier who was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004, expressed her
distress and frustration at their failure to offer a fair and balanced
show. But more than that, she provided considerable insight into the sad
fact that the so-called 'mainstream media' had become a 'propaganda tool'
for the Bush administration.
"Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was
killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son
joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know
full-well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were
betrayed by George [W.] Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda
after 9/11. We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the
terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy...not for the real reason,
because the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign
policy. That hasn't changed since America invaded and occupied Iraq...in
fact it has gotten worse."
Sheehan, 48, traveled to the president's Crawford ranch Saturday after
Bush said that fallen U.S. troops had died for a 'noble cause' and that
the mission must be completed.
"I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son
die for?" Sheehan told reporters. "Last week, you said my son died for a
noble cause' and I want to ask him what that noble cause is?"
With journalists camped out waiting for George W. Bush to make a move and
with little else to do, Sheehan's voice is finally being heard. Indeed, as
the number of dead U.S. soldiers increases each day and as more and more
revelations about how the U.S. Government failed to protect its citizens
on 9/11 (or worse, were responsible in some way for the events of that
day) are being made public, it seems that the nation's media are finally
taking their jobs seriously.
Sheehan said she plans to continue her vigil until she gets to talk to
Bush. "I'll follow him to D.C.," she said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=812
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Nightline Tonight Mon., March 14, 2005
That was my son's unit. He was killed on that day 04/04/04. Here is a letter that I wrote to NightLine about the broadcast:
Love
Cindy Sheehan
March 15, 2005
To Whom it May Concern:
Imagine my distress when I turned Night Line on last night and I was confronted with the gory details of my son's murder in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq on 04/04/04. Imagine, also, my sorrow and rage at the side of the story that you presented to the American public.
I was on the Night Line Townhall Meeting in Washington, DC on 01/27/05. After I spoke (which I think was a fluke), Ted Koppel dismissed me as being "emotional." First of all, how can I approach this discussion without emotions, MY SON WAS KILLED, AND KILLED FOR LIES? Second of all, that show was not fair and balanced and I think the conclusion "Should we stay" was foregone.
The show last night was also not fair and balanced. To see all the wives being interviewed who had not lost their husbands and to hear what "hard work" it is to be left behind when their husbands are at war. How hard to you think it is to have a child killed in an illegal and immoral war? In this "wonderful" group of families left behind, we had exactly ONE of the wives call us..she is Diane Rose who was my son's Colonel, Frank Rose's wife. The last time we heard from Diane was in October and we feel we have been left behind by anyone connected to the 2-5 Cavalry. Is support only given if your loved one stays alive? One wife was quoted as saying that Sundays were the hardest for the families left behind. My son was killed on Palm Sunday last year..how does anybody think Sundays are for my family?
A distraught father who lost his son was shown telling how much his life was so adversely affected. Why wasn't a mother (like me) who has been an outspoken critic of this war and of the President's policies interviewed for this piece? Why wasn't I given a chance to talk about 04/04/04 and the series of lies, mistakes and miscalculations that led to my precious oldest child's death??
General Chiarelli was quoted as saying that 04/04/04 was a "wake up" call to the 2-5 Cavalry. If he thinks it was a "wake up" call, let me tell you how having 3 Army officers come to my door on 04/04/04 and tell me that my darling son was KIA. I have learned so many details of that day and of my son's experience in Iraq.
The very first thing that went wrong happened in November at Ft Irwin, California...the 2-5 Cavalry went for desert training. They received open desert warfare training and my son was killed in an urban guerilla attack, which he hadn't been trained for. Also, he was wearing an inadequate helmet and a Vietnam era flak jacket. Casey was stationed in a very dangerous place, like the General said: FOB War Eagle. I have subsequently learned that the soldiers of the 2-5 Cav who were stationed outside of Baghdad had Kevlar body armor. I have also found out that Casey slept in the back of his Humvee for the last 2 weeks of his life because there wasn't any room on post for him to have a cot. How tired and overworked was he before he went into that battle on 04/04/04?
In addition, my son was killed after L. Paul Bremer inflamed the Shi'a by taking away their tv station and newspapers. The Abu Ghraib scandal was about to break in America...but it was well known by the Iraqi people that their citizens were being tortured and defiled in the prisons. My son was a sitting duck by the time 04/04/04 rolled around.
The very worst thing of all, is that my son was sent to rescue some fellow soldiers trapped in an ambush in the back of a LMTV..which is basically an open air trailer. It would be the equivalent of driving through Dallas on 11/22/63 in a Convertible. The troops stationed at FOB War Eagle were sent ahead of their tanks and Bradleys!!! They had to go into battle in the back of LMTV's and non-armored Humvees. This is just proof to me that our troops are as important to their leaders as bullets are. It is a small miracle that only 7 of them were killed in the ambush. Luckily for the rest of the moms, it was dark. After my son's murder, there was an article in Stars and Stripes that quoted one of Casey's superior officers as saying. "04 April taught us a lesson. We won't send soldiers to battle without their armor any more." How do you think that made me feel? It was like "OOOPS, your dear son was killed. Life happens. Oh well, you live and learn." The General was also quoted as saying that the insurgency "surprised" them. Why? Has there ever been an invasion/occupation of a sovereign country that hasn't been resisted? Anyone with half a brain and an even rudimentary understanding of history would know that all occupations are resisted. The Pentagon and the Army brass did not plan adequately for an occupation.
Then Gen. Chiarelli said the thing that upset me the most. He said that the loss of life was terrible, but at least Iraqis had elections on 01/30/05. With the continuuing insurgency and with Iraqis and Americans losing their lives everyday there, how can he be proud of that? I may remind you and the General, that Iraqi elections was not the reason that our President and his Neo-Con war mongers invaded Iraq with our precious human resources. I will give the two reasons given for the invaseion here: Saddam had WMD's and he was an imminent threat to America. Saddam could have WMD's on our shores within 45 minutes. Condoleeza Rice used fear as a factor when she said: Don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud. Rumsfeld and Colin Powell pointed out to us where the weapons were on a map.
The second reason that America was given before the invasion was that Saddam was the biggest sponsor of world terrorism and he supported Osama Bin Laden! Oh really??? The hijackers were predominantly Saudi Arabian as was Osama (who is still at large, by the way). The theory that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11 was disproven by the 9/11 commission's report. A huge factor in Americans believing all this bull is that our media..the Fourth Estate didn't do any research and expose the lies for what they were: justifications for invading a country that posed no imminent or long-term threat to America.
One reason that the President DID NOT give for the invasion and occupation of Iraq was so that Iraqis could have elections. As a matter of fact, that was Ayatollah Ali al Sistani's idea..not Bush's. If the president in his lying and betraying in the lead up and rush to this insane invasion had told the world that we were going over there to give Iraqi's elections, would we the people have gone along with the invasion? Would we as compassionate Americans have thought that it would have been worth billions and billions of dollars; hundreds of our amazing children dead; tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi women and children dead: a country lying in ruins? I don't think so. I certainly didn't raise my son to be an outstanding citizen of the world to go and die so some people could have ink-stained fingers!!! If anyone reading this has children, would you think it was worth it?? Instead of some Congress leaders showing ink-stained fingers at the SOTU address they should have held up blood soaked hands.
Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full-well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by a George Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11. We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy...not for the real reason, becuase the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign policy. That hasn't changed since America invaded and occupied Iraq...in fact it has gotten worse.
It would be so amazing if your show would put me, or another parent who lost their child on who disagrees with the war and this administration: to have just an entire show..without presenting the false side of the debate. That would take a lot of courage and integrity. I hope your program will exhibit these qualities.
I also think that Mr. Koppel owes me an apology for the rude way I was treated on his show. After I expressed myself about the war being based on lies and that the troops should be brought home immediately because the war was based on lies, I was not thanked for my comments, or my son's sacrifice. He just said to keep the discussion away from emotions. Then, the wife of a soldier who was killed was allowed to speak and she praised the policies of this deplorable and despicable administration, and she was thanked and praised by the panel.
Also, another aspect that Mr. Koppel refused to acknowledge was when a man walked up to a microphone and asked Richard Perle to explain PNAC..he was rudely ignored.
I am so glad the First Cavalry came home from this senseless and needless war based on the imaginations of Neo-Cons and fought with ignorance and arrogance by the Commander in Chief and the Pentagon. I am thrilled for the mothers whose children didn't come home under the cover of darkness in flag-draped boxes like my son did. I am sure that some of Casey's buddies were able to walk off the plane because of his sacrifice. I am just so deeply sorry that my son's blood had to be their leaders' lesson in how to occupy a country and fight an insurgency. My son is dead forever and my joy has been robbed from me for the rest of my life.
Your show needs to show both sides of this debate and stop being a propanda tool for this administration. This is my challenge to you from a true patriot who wants the lies exposed.
Love and Peace!!!
Cindy Sheehan
Mother of Hero: Spc Casey Austin Sheehan KIA 04/04/04
Casey's Peace Page
Co-Founder of Gold Star Families For Peace
http://www.gsfp.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheney's man to replace Feith at Pentagon:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/08/15/cheney-s-man-slated-to-replace-feith.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Bush: Call off the Dogs on Cindy Sheehan:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/09/113022.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whose War?:
http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syrian Ambassador to USA discusses 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda (which is addressed in James Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book):
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/06/10/syrian-ambassador-mentions-a-clean-break-war-for-israel.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gorilla in the Room is US Support for Israel
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2005/08/gorilla-in-room-is-us-support-for.html
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
Last edited by Alpha on Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:35 am; edited 18 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:59 pm Post subject: Mom's war protest gains momentum |
|
Mom's war protest gains momentum
02:51 PM CDT on Thursday, August 11, 2005
Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas - Cindy Sheehan's eyes well with tears when she talks about her oldest son, Casey, an easygoing young man with a quiet wit.
Casey joined the Army in 2000, never imagining he would see combat. Five days after he arrived in Iraq last year, the 24-year-old was killed in Sadr City.
Sheehan knows nothing can bring back her son, but she wants to talk to President Bush. The Vacaville, Calif., mother has been camping out along a road near his ranch since Saturday, vowing to remain until his Texas vacation ends later this month.
AP
Cindy Sheehan stands in front of tents on the side of the road that leads to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
"Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference," she said Wednesday under a tent where she has slept since arriving. "But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard."
Speaking with reporters at his ranch Thursday, Bush expressed sympathy for Sheehan.
"She feels strongly about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes," Bush said.
"And I thought long and hard about her position," he said. "I've heard her position from others, which is: Get out of Iraq now. And it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so."
"One way to honor the fallen," he said, "is to lay the foundation for peace."
Bush National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and a deputy White House chief of staff talked to Sheehan on Saturday. She said the meeting, which she called "pointless," lasted 20 minutes, but the White House said the meeting lasted 45 minutes.
By Wednesday, about 50 people had joined her cause, pitching tents in muddy, shallow ditches and hanging anti-war banners; two dozen others have sent flowers. Her name was among the most popular search topics Wednesday on Internet blogs.
The soft-spoken Sheehan, 48, is surprised and touched at the overwhelming response -- most of which is positive, she says.
Also Online
Bush: Iraq pullout would be a mistake
But not everyone supports her. Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the Washington, D.C., chapter of FreeRepublic.com, said Sheehan's protest is misguided and is hurting troop morale.
"She has a political agenda that goes way beyond her son's death in combat," said Taylor, whose conservative group has held pro-troop rallies since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and counter-protests of anti-war demonstrations.
Sheehan, a Catholic youth minister for eight years, never wanted Casey to join the military. But he did after being misled by his recruiter, she said. Although he also opposed the war, he didn't try to back out of his duty.
"I begged him not to go," she said through tears. "I said, 'I'll take you to Canada' ... but he said, 'Mom, I have to go. It's my duty. My buddies are going."'
Sheehan has spent the past several days in rainy weather talking to scores of reporters, hugging fellow protesters and taking brief breaks to eat sandwiches and fruit brought by supporters.
She and her husband are separated, affected by the stress of losing their son. But her other three children, ages 19 to 24, may join her in Crawford, she said.
Sheehan was among grieving military families who met with Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, Wash., near Seattle. She has said her feelings have shifted from shock to anger since then, in part because of various reports that have disputed some of the Bush administration's justifications for the war.
Many supporters decided to go to Crawford because of rumors that Sheehan would be arrested.
But no protesters will be arrested unless they trespass on private property or block the road, said Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office.
Trucker Craig Delaney, 53, was in Georgia on Monday when he heard numerous radio shows discussing Sheehan -- some criticizing her. He altered his route to California, heading for Texas, and got to Sheehan's site Wednesday morning.
"I felt compelled to come and tell her I support her," said Delaney, a self-described hippie from Sly Park, Calif. "The way they were bad-mouthing a mother whose son was killed in the war is un-American."
Nearly 40 Democratic members of Congress have asked Bush to talk to her. On Wednesday, a coalition of anti-war groups in Washington also called on Bush to speak with Sheehan, who they say has helped to unify the peace movement.
"Cindy Sheehan has become the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement," said Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, an activist group. "She's tired, fed up and she's not going to take it anymore, and so now we stand with her."
Earlier this year Sheehan formed Gold Star Families for Peace and has spoken to groups across the nation and overseas.
Judith Young, national president of the similarly named The American Gold Star Mothers of America Inc., said she is concerned the public will mistake her 76-year-old Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization with Sheehan's group.
In Young's group, commonly known as Gold Star Moms, mothers whose children died in the line of duty volunteer in veterans' hospitals and programs. Members don't do advocacy work, Young said.
Online at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/081205dntexpeacemom.62cc104e.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother's Protest at Bush's Doorstep Raises the Stakes
By Edwin Chen and Dana Calvo
The Los Angeles Times
Thursday 11 August 2005
Crawford, Texas - For more than a year, a modest bungalow known as "Peace House," located a few miles from President Bush's ranch, has served as a headquarters for antiwar activists. It is lonely work, with little more than a skeleton crew on hand much of the time.
But then Cindy Sheehan hit town.
The 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year, is consumed by the kind of grief that turns into a furious determination to do something - in her case, to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died.
Now, in the space of just a few days, what started out as a seemingly quixotic personal mission has become something of a phenomenon - with media swarming around Sheehan, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.
Antiwar leaders hope that putting the spotlight on Sheehan will motivate Americans who oppose the war, creating a political force strong enough to compel the Bush administration to change course.
MoveOn.org and other liberal groups have rushed to provide support, offering media expertise and attempting to assemble a corps of others who have lost relatives in Iraq or have family members serving there.
Liberal voices have swung into action on the Internet as well. On Wednesday, Democratic media consultant Joe Trippi organized a conference call with Sheehan for bloggers, aiming to garner more publicity. By Wednesday afternoon, "Cindy Sheehan" was the top-ranked search term on Technorati.com, the search engine for blog postings.
The White House, meanwhile, has sought to cope with Sheehan's vigil without abandoning its strategy for dealing with the families of troops who have died. On a number of occasions, Bush has met with bereaved relatives - including some who have challenged him sharply on the war - but he has done so privately, away from news cameras and reporters.
Sheehan, a Vacaville, Calif., resident who opposed the war even before her son's death, was a member of one such group in June 2004. She came away from that meeting dissatisfied and angry.
"We wanted [the president] to look at pictures of Casey, we wanted him to hear stories about Casey, and he wouldn't. He changed the subject every time we tried," Sheehan said. "He wouldn't say Casey's name, called him: 'your loved one.' "
Sheehan, a co-founder of the antiwar group Gold Star Families for Peace, has said she would remain in Crawford until she got to see Bush face to face.
Until a cloudburst forced her to move to Peace House early Wednesday morning, Sheehan had been camping in a tent along a road about two miles from Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch. On Saturday, the day she arrived in Crawford, two senior White House aides - national security advisor Stephen Hadley and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin - left the ranch to meet with her on a dusty road for 45 minutes.
That, she said, was not satisfactory.
By Wednesday night, Sheehan had given so many interviews that she was sucking on lozenges to soothe an inflamed throat. Her ears were sore from cradling a telephone. Her media advisor, newly arrived from San Francisco, said Sheehan had developed a fever.
None of that stopped her. Whether talking to newspaper reporters, People magazine or radio and television interviewers - some from as far away as Japan - she was relentlessly on message.
"I don't believe his phony excuses for the war," she said of Bush in an interview with a CBS reporter for the network's Northern California affiliates. "I want him to tell me why my son died.
"If he gave the real answer, people in this country would be outraged - if he told people it was to make his buddies rich, that it was about oil."
Sheehan is certainly not the first to denounce the president over the war. From the beginning, activists have been outspoken in criticizing Bush's policy and his stated reasons for sending U.S. troops into Iraq.
For the moment however, the personal nature of Sheehan's protest - with its edge of raw emotion - and the concentration of news media staked out in Crawford, where Bush is spending much of August, have combined to raise her voice above the crowd.
"Anything that focuses media and public attention on Iraq war casualties day after day - particularly [something] that is a good visual for television, like a weeping Gold Star mother - is a really bad thing for President Bush and his administration," said independent political analyst Charlie Cook.
"Americans get a little numb by the numbers of war casualties, but when faces, names and families are added, it has a much greater effect," he said.
"Cindy Sheehan has tapped into a latent but fervent feeling among some in this country who would prefer that we not engage our troops in Iraq," said Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway, president of the Polling Company, based in Washington.
"She can tap into what has been an astonishingly silent minority since the end of last year's presidential contest. It will capture attention."
But other analysts predicted that Sheehan would soon fade from the scene.
"The president has an Iraq problem, but I don't think it's much worsened by Mrs. Sheehan," said professor Stephen Hess of George Washington University. "One Gold Star mother is a sympathetic figure, but collectively - as Gold Star Families for Peace - she is a movement and, as such, can be countered by a countermovement.
"I think the president might have defused the situation if he had invited her in instantly," Hess said, predicting that GOP strategists would soon mount a counterattack.
Already, there were signs of just that.
Some have suggested that Sheehan is disloyal to criticize the president in time of war. Even in Vacaville, Sheehan said, some people say she is shaming her son's memory. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin disdainfully called the activists promoting Sheehan "grief pimps."
The antiwar activists who have rushed to Sheehan's side are all too well aware of the danger that her moment in the spotlight could become just another partisan shouting match.
Said Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org: "Cindy reached out to us. We're e-mailing our members about her story today, running a print ad in Waco [Texas]. Cindy is a morally pure voice on the war, so we're trying to keep the focus on her and not jump in and turn it into a political fight."
Since Sheehan arrived in Crawford, Peace House has been transformed into a beehive.
On the porch, bottles of water - and a huge box of collapsible pink umbrellas - were waiting Wednesday to be ferried out to "Camp Casey," the muddy staging area along Prairie Chapel Road where Sheehan and about 100 of her supporters were gathered.
On a table in the living room were stacks of white T-shirts that read "BUSH … Talk to Cindy! Moms and Vets Will Stop the War!"
In the tiny kitchen, two women busily chopped carrots and celery as they prepared to feed a growing cadre of activists. Other volunteers talked on their cellphones, coordinating with supporters around the country.
There was much speculation about "other moms" and parents of troops serving in the war coming to join Sheehan, although no one seemed to know for certain. "A busload is coming from Seattle," one woman called out.
Stephanie Frizzell, 30, said she drove from Dallas with her son, Julian, 4, "to provide support for Cindy." They met last weekend at a Dallas convention of veterans for peace.
According to Ann Wright, who identified herself as a former U.S. diplomat who resigned to protest the war, Sheehan seemed to make a spontaneous decision to come to Crawford while she was addressing the convention Friday.
Wright said many hands were raised, offering to join her mission.
As Sheehan put it Wednesday: "I just had the right idea in the right place at the right time."
------
Times staff writers Ronald Brownstein, Joel Havemann and Johanna Neuman in Washington contributed to this report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Women Join War Protester
By Alex Roth
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Wednesday 10 August 2005
They say they'll await Bush meeting.
The idea of making a spontaneous trip to President Bush's vacation ranch was born when Julie Decker read a newspaper article a couple of days ago and immediately called her good friend Tiffany Strause.
The story was about a Northern California woman whose son had been killed in Iraq and who subsequently decided to camp out in front of Bush's Texas ranch until she got a face-to-face meeting with him.
Yesterday morning, a day after reading the piece, Strause, who lives in San Marcos, and Decker, who lives in Carlsbad, were on a plane to Crawford, Texas, to join the woman in her vigil.
They intend to stay, they said, until Bush - who is on vacation at the ranch for the next five weeks - agrees to meet Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville in person.
Neither of the two women knows Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son, Casey, an Army specialist, was killed in Baghdad in April 2004. Neither has a child, much less one who has been killed in Iraq. And neither had been active in the anti-war movement. They hadn't attended any "protests or peace rallies or anything like that," Strause said. "Both of us are very busy."
But they share with Sheehan the firm belief that the war is a colossal mistake. And when they heard about Sheehan's story, "it was like the straw that broke the camel's back," said Strause, 29, who works as a consultant in the computer industry.
"We just want to do something," she said. "We're so sick of being on the sidelines. Being busy isn't an excuse anymore."
She called the war "this generation's Vietnam."
After reading the news article, Decker, 40, a health care executive, tracked down Sheehan with her cell phone number, obtained from the Associated Press reporter who wrote the piece. Decker asked what she could do to help.
"I need bodies," replied Sheehan, who had been camping for several days in a sleeping bag not far from the president's compound.
So Decker and Strause booked a flight, packed some clothes and told the men in their lives - Decker is married and Strause is engaged - they'd be gone several weeks.
"I support you," Strause's fiance told her. "I'll take care of the dogs. You just go."
The women landed in Texas yesterday afternoon, rented a car and headed to Crawford, where they intend to stay in a hotel near where Sheehan is camping out. A half-dozen other people had already arrived to camp alongside her.
Not surprisingly, there are those who view Sheehan's protest as counterproductive and an insult to the men and women serving in the military.
"She's not the only one who lost a son or a daughter, but how many other people do you see camping out in front of the White House?" said Joseph Bertolino Sr. of El Cajon, whose son Stephen, an Army staff sergeant, was killed in Iraq in 2003.
Bertolino, 75, a veteran of two wars and a retired meat cutter, said he supports the Iraqi invasion, adding, "It's hard to lose someone in a war, but (my son) knew the consequences in making the military his career."
Decker and Strause say they expect to stay the full five weeks that Bush is on vacation. They both said they expect to suffer financially. Strause and her fiance recently bought a house and "our credit card bills are chock-full right now."
"It'll be a crunch," she said. "I'm not a trust-fund baby or anything like that."
But they took along computers and cell phones so they can get some work done when they're not standing outside Bush's vacation home.
"We brought enough clothes for a week and we're going to keep going to the Laundromat," Strause said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Americans Join Mom in Waiting for Iraq Answers
By Carol Marin
The Chicago Sun-Times
Wednesday 10 August 2005
I keep thinking about that mother who is camped out somewhere near the end of President Bush's driveway in Crawford, Texas. Her name is Cindy Sheehan, and her 24-year-old son, Casey, is dead. He was a soldier, killed last year in the Iraq war.
Sheehan wants a face-to-face meeting with the president to tell him to stop saying that our continued commitment to this awful war "honors" the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for their country. Sheehan doesn't believe we honor anyone by putting new lives on the line. Not more of our own soldiers. Not those of the so-called "coalition forces." And not innocent Iraqi men, women and children for that matter either.
So Sheehan is parked in a ditch, living in a tent, some distance from the president's ranch and refusing to pack up and go back home to California.
I wondered when Bush left Crawford this morning to come here to Illinois if he left his ranch by car and therefore traveled down his driveway in the vicinity of Sheehan? Or was he lifted out by helicopter, flying up and out over her head? Either way, she is down there in Texas today and Bush is here.
The reason the president is taking time away from his summer ranch vacation to come to Illinois is to sign a big transportation bill outside of Aurora. It involves a lot of money, $286.5 billion for all sorts of projects. Of that amount, Illinois will get hundreds of millions of dollars to build bridges, shore up infrastructure and create some new roads. All in all, those things make a difference in people's lives and so there will be a load of politicians standing behind the president, chief among them House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and other members of the Illinois congressional delegation.
This bill represents one of those rare moments of bipartisan unity because all of the state's Democrats and Republicans in Congress voted for it, as did our two United States senators. There will be a lot of applause and and a sense of accomplishment, a lot of back-slapping and congratulation. These are the kind of events that people in public life love. It's a way to focus on the positive.
The Iraq war is not a positive. That's why for two years we haven't been allowed to view soldiers' flag-draped coffins coming into Dover Air Force base. That's why the president keeps the cost of this war out of the official annual budget document, relegating it to supplemental appropriations instead. And that's why the administration would rather use terms like "coalition forces" rather than actually name the countries supporting us. After all, just how many troops do we really think can be supplied by Albania, Azerbaijan and Estonia?
Sadly, for most of us the Iraq war has become terrible noise in the background of our lives. It doesn't really reach us except when we turn on the television or open the newspaper or check our e-mail. That's where it pops up much like an unwelcome Internet ad that we can make disappear with a click. The problem is that it keeps popping up.
We are only a third of the way through August, and 31 more soldiers are dead. Car bombs. Insurgent attacks across the country. Carnage in the cities as well as in the countryside.
Thousands more of our wounded are coming home to rehabilitate their broken bodies and in some cases, tortured minds.
And as Sun-Times reporter Cheryl Reed has shown us in stunning detail, we talk a good game in this country about honoring the troops and respecting our veterans, but we fall disgracefully short of putting our money where our mouth is.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was his usual prickly self when asked how long we expect to keep our troops in Iraq and how long before we begin a promised drawdown. He and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, can't say. They have, in truth, never been able to tell us.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and all the rest of them who took us to this war by catering to our worst fears and filling us with false information continue to this day to defend the indefensible.
As the financial cost of this war approaches $200 billion and as we are fast moving toward our 2,000th casualty, something has to change.
Cindy Sheehan, waiting down at the end of the president's driveway in Texas, is right about this war.
-------
Carol Marin's column appears Wednesday and Sunday in the Sun-Times.
Last edited by Alpha on Thu Aug 11, 2005 11:10 pm; edited 1 time in total | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:05 pm Post subject: What One Mom Has to Say to George Bush |
| What One Mom Has to Say to George Bush
Mike Ferner, Electronic Iraq,
August 9, 2005
"That lying bastard, George Bush, is taking a five-week vacation in time of war," Cindy Sheehan told 200 cheering members of Veterans For Peace at their annual convention in Dallas last Friday evening. She then announced she would go to Bush's vacation home in nearby Crawford, Texas and camp out until he "tells me why my son died in Iraq. I've got the whole month of August off, and so does he."
Sheehan left the VFP meeting on Saturday morning and is now in Crawford with a couple dozen veterans and local peace activists, waiting for Bush to talk with her. She said in Dallas that if he sends anyone else to see her, as happened when national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin did later that day, she would demand that "You get that maniac out here to talk with me in person."
She told the audience of veterans from World War Two to today's war in Iraq, that the two main things she plans to tell the man she holds responsible for son Casey's death are "Quit saying that U.S. troops died for a noble cause in Iraq, unless you say, 'well, except for Casey Sheehan.' Don't you dare spill any more blood in Casey's name. You do not have permission to use my son's name."
"And the other thing I want him to tell me is 'just what was the noble cause Casey died for?' Was it freedom and democracy? Bullshit! He died for oil. He died to make your friends richer. He died to expand American imperialism in the Middle East. We're not freer here, thanks to your PATRIOT Act. Iraq is not free. You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism," she exclaimed.
A recent AP poll on Bush's handling of Iraq. (CNN screenshot)
"There, I used the 'I' word - imperialism," the 48 year-old mother quipped. "And now I'm going to use another 'I' word - impeachment - because we cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail."
As the veterans in Dallas rose to their feet, Sheehan said defiantly, "My son was killed in 2004. I am not paying my taxes for 2004. You killed my son, George Bush, and I don't owe you a penny...you give my son back and I'll pay my taxes. Come after me (for back taxes) and we'll put this war on trial."
The co-founder of Gold Star Mothers for Peace objected to hearing that her son was among the soldiers lost in Iraq. "He's not lost," she said tearfully. "He's dead. He became an angel while I was sleeping."
She railed against the notion expressed by officials in the Bush administration that bringing the troops home now would dishonor the sacrifice of those who have died. "By sending honorable people to die, they so dishonor themselves. They say we must complete our mission...but why would I want one more mother to go through what I have, just because my son is dead?"
A recent Newsweek poll on Bush's handling of Iraq. (CNN screenshot)
The Vacaville, California resident said she first heard of Veterans For Peace in early May last year, during a CNN report about an exhibit of white crosses arranged in rows in the Santa Barbara beach. The exhibit was organized by VFP Chapter 54 to memorialize each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Her son had died the month before. "I decided there was only one place I wanted to be on Mother's Day that year, and it was Santa Barbara," she told the VFP members in Dallas.
Retired Special Forces Sgt. and VFP member, Stan Goff, today initiated a "Talk to Cindy" campaign to get Bush to meet with Sheehan. Contact information for the White House is: (202) 456-1111 or comments@whitehouse.gov
Mike Ferner is a writer in Toledo, Ohio and a member of Veterans for Peace. He can be reached at mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net
Last edited by Alpha on Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:38 am; edited 1 time in total | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:46 pm Post subject: An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan |
| Ralph Nader
An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan
Wed Aug 10, 2005 20:22
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=88875;title=APFN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 10, 2005 - 3:33 PM
CONTACT: Ralph Nader
202-387-8034
An Open Letter from Ralph Nader to Cindy Sheehan
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0810-15.htm
WASHINGTON - August 10 -
Dear Ms. Sheehan,
From your grief over the loss of your son, Casey, in Iraq has come the courage to spotlight nationally the cowardly character trait of a President who refuses to meet with anyone or any group critical of his illegal, fabricated, deceptive war and occupation of that ravaged country. As a messianic militarist, Mr. Bush turned aside his own father's major advisers who warned him of the terroristic, political, and diplomatic perils to the United States from an invasion of Iraq. He refused to listen.
Thirteen organizations in early 2003 separately wrote their President requesting a meeting to have him hear them out as to why they opposed his drumbeating, on-the-road-to war policies. These groups represented millions of Americans. They included church leaders, veterans, business, labor, retired intelligence officials, students, women and others. They are among those Americans who are not allowed through the carefully screened public audiences that are bused to arenas around the country to hear his repetitive slogans for carrying on this draining, boomeranging war. They each wrote President Bush but he never bothered even to acknowledge their letters simply to say no to the requested meetings. Not even the courtesy of a reply came from their White House. Ever since then it has been the same-exclusion, denial, contempt and arrogance for views counter to that of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and the tight circle around them that composes the inner tin ear of this Administration. Why, they even refuse to listen to objections by their own government's military lawyers (JAG) over repeated violations of due process of law. When will he realize that he is supposed to be the President of all the people, not just those misled into supporting his Iraq maneuvers?
Perhaps the breakthrough will begin this hot August in Crawford, Texas, with the devastating loss of a beloved child transformed into a mission for the soul of our country. This rogue regime, led by two draft-dodgers and officially counseled by similar pro-war evaders during the Vietnam War, is not "our country." Millions of Americans, including military and public servants in his Administration, and many in the retired military, diplomatic and intelligence services, opposed this war, still oppose it and do not equate George W. Bush and Dick Cheney with the United States of America.
Our flag stands for "liberty and justice for all." Our flag must never be misused or defiled as a bandana for war crimes, as a gag against the people's freedom of speech and conscience or as a fig leaf to hide the shame of charlatans in high public office, who violate our Constitution, our laws and our founding fathers' framework for accountable, responsive government.
You will be goaded to cross the semantic line against a President who himself has crossed the much graver constitutional line that has cost so many lives on both sides and continues to cost and cost our country in so many ways domestically and before the world. Neglecting America for the Iraq war has become the widening downward path trod by the Bush government.
Authenticity, bereft of contrivances, is what must confront this White House Misleader. And authenticity is what you are and what drives you as you demand to see this resistant President. He is on an intermittent month long vacation, with spells for fundraisers and other insulated events. His schedule provides ample time for such a meeting. You reflect the hopes and prayers of millions of like-minded Americans. Should he relent and opens his doors, be sure to ask why he lowballs U.S. casualties in Iraq, deleting and disrespecting soldiers seriously hurt or sickened in the Iraq war theatre, but not in direct combat. Remind him of those soldiers back in military hospitals who, with their families, wonder why they are not being counted as they cope with their serious and permanent disabilities. (60 Minutes, CBS program). Ask him why, despite Pentagon audits and GAO investigations about corruption, waste and non-delivery of services in Iraq by profiteering large corporations totaling billions of dollars, this Commander of Chief accepted campaign contributions from their executives and proceeds to let this giant corporate robbery continue without the requisite law and order?
Consider bringing to him a copy of President Dwight Eisenhower's famous "Cross of Iron" speech, delivered in April 1953 before the nation's newspaper editors in Washington, D.C. And add statements by Marine General Anthony Zinni (ret.), a Middle East specialist who strongly criticized the Bush-Cheney war policy before and after March 2003. May you and your associates succeed in galvanizing the public debate in this country over why a growing majority of Americans now think it was a costly mistake to invade Iraq and want our soldiers back, with the U.S. out of that country. He knows that his support for how he is handling this war-occupation is falling close to one third of respondents in recent polls-the lowest yet. Even with the mass-media at his disposal everyday, he now represents a minority of public opinion, which should give him pause before closing his oil marinated doors on majority views in this nation.
May you prevail where others have failed to secure an audience with Mr. Bush.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
###
===========
Military Families Join Protest at U.S. President's Ranch
Crawford, August 10 (RHC)-- Military families of U.S. soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq are joining the protest outside of President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Members of Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) and Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) traveled to Texas to join Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an Army soldier killed last year in Iraq. Sheehan began her protest on Saturday, vowing to remain at the ranch until the U.S. president agreed to meet with her.
According to anti-war organizations in the United States, the families with loved ones currently in Iraq or about to deploy or re-deploy to Iraq are converging on Texas to add their voices to the call for a meeting with President Bush, who is vacationing at his ranch during the entire month of August.
Earlier this month, the U.S. president referred to troops killed in Iraq, assuring their families that "they died for a noble cause." A statement issued by the groups said that they know that "the cause was not noble and that their loved ones died, or are currently in harm's way, serving in a war based on lies." The statement says that the best way to honor their loved ones is to end the occupation, bring the troops home now and take care of them when they return.
Members of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out say the White House has consistently tried to hide, and to hide from, the cost of the war in Iraq. This August, they say, these costs are being brought right to Bush's doorstep.
http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/world/families100805.htm
LINK:
Dear Friends and Supporters,
George Bush said speaking about the dreadful loss of life in Iraq in August: (08/03/05): "We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission." "The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause."
In reaction to these two assinine and hurtful statements, members of Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) are going to George's vacation home in Crawford, Tx this Saturday, August 6th at 11:00 am to confront him on these two statements.
1) We want our loved ones sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation's sons and daughters home from the travesty that is Iraq IMMEDIATELY, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions. Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation that we are.
2) We would like for him to explain this "noble cause" to us and ask him why Jenna and Barbara are not in harm's way, if the cause is so noble.
3) If George is not ready to send the twins, then he should bring our troops home immediately. We will demand a speedy withdrawal.
GSFP will be joined by members of Veteran's for Peace (VFP), Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Code Pink, and Crawford Peace House.
We GSFP members will not leave until we get answers from George Bush. We deserve and expect him to welcome us with answers to as why our loved ones are dead.
Every worker for peace, every worker for justice, every person who wants our country back are welcomed to join us on Saturday. Show George Bush that we mean business. Be there to support us family members who have already been through so much. We are fighting for our country, our world, especially the children.
Crawford is about 2 hours from Dallas where the VFP Convention is being held this weekend. There will be car pools from the convention.
HONOR OUR LOVED ONE'S SACRIFICES: BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!!!
Bring water and hats...we plan on staying until we are arrested or satisfied with the answers. (I am betting on jail).
Please pass this email on to your friends, lists, and media.
For more info: call
Cindy Sheehan
707-365-7750
I will be in Dallas starting tomorrow evening. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 8:22 pm Post subject: Re:Cindy Sheehan's letter to Nightline about PNAC Neocon... |
| From: JimWDean@aol.com
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:46:30 EDT
Subject: Re: Cindy Sheehan's letter to Nightline about PNAC Neocon cabal
Stand with Cindy Sheehan:
This would be going a lot better is she was not swarming with the Left wing Dems. That puts a force field around her that conservatives will not penetrate. She has had the balls to mention the NeoCons but, as I am sure you noticed, the media seems to leave that out.
She is also making a big mistake by focusing so much on herself...and the 'I want to talk to him'. What we need is a challenge for an independent investigation to cooking the books prior to and after going in....a completely independent criminal investigation with no political string pulling. Of course he would say no...and then they would have him. In fact that is what all the group focus should be...but if it is headed up by Left wing Dems they will never get non partisan support, which is the only way to do them a lot of damage if the continue to refuse.
The Bushies will refuse the Dems all day long.
Jim | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:54 pm Post subject: War Mothers, Bush Are Worlds Apart |
| War Mothers, Bush Are Worlds Apart
By Nedra Pickler
The Associated Press
Friday 12 August 2005
Crawford, Texas - They were just a few miles away from each other Thursday, standing under a hot midday sun to express their concern about US troops dying in Iraq. But President Bush and the grieving mother outside his ranch were worlds apart on how best to honor the dead.
Bush said the United States must finish the job of bringing a stable democracy to Iraq. Cindy Sheehan and a growing group of war protesters who have joined her say the soldiers should come home immediately.
Sheehan's son, Casey, was killed five days after he arrived in Iraq last year at age 24. Sheehan began her standoff Saturday, saying she would stay for the entire month that Bush plans to be in Texas unless he meets with her.
Bush, speaking to reporters between meetings with advisers at his ranch, said he sympathizes with her grief and mourns the loss of life. More than 1,840 troops have died in Iraq.
"I also have heard the voices of those saying, 'Pull out now,'" Bush said. "And I've thought about their cry and their sincere desire to reduce the loss of life by pulling our troops out. I just strongly disagree."
"Pulling the troops out would send a terrible signal to the enemy," he said.
While Bush hosted a strategy session with foreign affairs and military advisers at his ranch, protesters who had traveled from across the country pitched tents outside in ditches next to Sheehan. Among them were at least three other parents who had lost children in the war.
"The president says he feels compassion for me, but the best way to show that compassion is by meeting with me and the other mothers and families who are here," Sheehan said. "All we're asking is that he sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us, before the next mother loses her son in Iraq."
The protesters put a human face on Americans' increasing opposition to Bush's handling of the war. An AP-Ipsos poll early this month showed just 38 percent of respondents approved of his handling of Iraq.
"I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan," Bush said. "She feels strongly about her position. She has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position. And I've thought long and hard about her position. I've heard her position from others, which is, 'Get out of Iraq now.'"
"And it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so," the president said.
The White House put out an accounting of all the meetings that Bush has had with families of the war dead - 900 relatives of 272 people who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sheehan met the president in June 2004 but said she deserves another visit since there have been so many revelations about faulty prewar intelligence since then.
Bush said reports that the Pentagon may increase or decrease troop levels in Iraq next year are simply "speculation and rumors." He noted, though, that the United States had sent more soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan before elections and was considering doing so again before another round of Iraqi elections in December.
Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, has said repeatedly that "fairly substantial" reductions are expected after the election if the political process stays on track, if the insurgency does not expand and if the training of Iraqi security forces proceeds as planned.
Bush said he would make any decision to remove troops based on recommendations by Casey, who gave a briefing by video-link during the president's ranch meeting with advisers.
"My position has been clear, and therefore, the position of this government is clear," Bush said. "Obviously, the conditions on the ground depend upon our capacity to bring troops home."
Bush said Casey reported that Iraqi security units were becoming more capable, although he acknowledged they were not ready to work alone without support from US forces. He described the Iraqis' progress as improving from "raw recruit" to "plenty capable."
"I know it's hard for some Americans to see that progress," Bush said. "But we are making progress."
Bush said the United States sees no reason that an Iraqi committee working to draft a new national constitution cannot finish its work by a Monday deadline.
On another Mideast topic, Bush indicated that the new Iranian president will receive a US visa to attend an annual United Nations gathering next month.
Bush said US investigators still have not yet determined what role Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have played in the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. Six former hostages have identified Ahmadinejad as one of their captors.
Even so, Bush said, the United States has separate obligations to other countries as the host nation for the United Nations, which is headquartered in New York.
"We have an agreement with the United Nations to allow people to come to meet, and I suspect he will be here to meet at the United Nations," Bush said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scottsdale Mothers Join Vigil in Texas
By Carol Sowers
The Arizona Republic
Friday 12 August 2005
Anti-war protest near Bush ranch.
Scottsdale - Two Scottsdale mothers have joined a highly publicized vigil near President Bush's remote ranch in Crawford, Texas, to demand that he withdraw troops from Iraq.
"This is a real pivotal moment in the anti-war movement," said Sherry Bohlen, whose son is in Iraq. "We want to raise public awareness."
Under mounting pressure, Bush repeatedly has said it is too early to pull out of the war, but he sympathizes with parents of soldiers.
Bohlen and Rebecca Bahr, also of Scottsdale, arrived in Crawford on Wednesday afternoon, where about 200 protesters have gathered since Saturday.
Much of the media attention has been on Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., who is camped on a roadside near Bush's ranch. Sheehan has vowed to stay put until she speaks with Bush about her son.
Casey Sheehan, 24, of the Army's 1st Battalion, was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, five days after he arrived.
Bahr was not available for comment Thursday. She has a daughter stateside who is a member of the Marine Corps.
Bohlen's son, Thor, 36, joined the Army two years ago after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"He wanted to serve his country," Bohlen said Thursday.
She said she believes military men and women serve their country honorably.
"But there is nothing honorable about a war based on lies." she said.
Bush went to war "knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction," Bohlen said.
Bohlen said Sheehan announced Thursday that if Bush has not spoken to her before he returns to Washington on Aug. 31, she will follow him to the White House, where she expects to be joined by other anti-war groups.
"We want to keep the pressure up," Bohlen said.
She praises Sheehan for empowering people to speak out against the war.
Bohlen compared Sheehan to Rosa Parks, a Black woman who defied segregation laws when she refused to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala., 50 years ago.
"Just as Rosa Parks refused to get off that bus," Bohlen said, "this will be the spark that sets off a nationwide anti-war movement."
Bohlen and Bahr are staying in a motel in another town because a campground is thick with mud from heavy rainstorms.
She said they spend all day Thursday and much of the evening at Camp Casey, where there is food and music "and people telling their stories."
Bohlen said she is not sure when she and Bahr will return to Scottsdale.
"We are playing it by ear." | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:17 pm Post subject: Why No Tea and Sympathy? |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/opinion/10dowd.html?incamp=article_popular
August 10, 2005
Why No Tea and Sympathy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
W. can't get no satisfaction on Iraq.
There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed.
A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now think that going to war was a mistake and that the war has made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism. So fighting them there means it's more likely we'll have to fight them here?
Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that sophisticated bombs were streaming over the border from Iran to Iraq.
And the Rolling Stones have taken a rare break from sex odes to record an antiwar song called "Sweet Neo Con," chiding Condi Rice and Mr. Bush. "You call yourself a Christian; I call you a hypocrite," Mick Jagger sings.
The N.F.L. put out a press release on Monday announcing that it's teaming up with the Stones and ABC to promote "Monday Night Football." The flag-waving N.F.L. could still back out if there's pressure, but the mood seems to have shifted since Madonna chickened out of showing an antiwar music video in 2003. The White House used to be able to tamp down criticism by saying it hurt our troops, but more people are asking the White House to explain how it plans to stop our troops from getting hurt.
Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old Californian with a knack for P.R., says she will camp out in the dusty heat near the ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush face to face that he must pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in a Sadr City ambush last year.
The president met with her family two months after Casey's death. Capturing W.'s awkwardness in traversing the line between somber and joking, and his love of generic labels, Ms. Sheehan said that W. had referred to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting, and given her the sense that he did not know who her son was.
The Bush team tried to discredit "Mom" by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Boat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.
It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W., who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch, is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn't.
It's hard to think of another president who lived in such meta-insulation. His rigidly controlled environment allows no chance encounters with anyone who disagrees. He never has to defend himself to anyone, and that is cognitively injurious. He's a populist who never meets people - an ordinary guy who clears brush, and brush is the only thing he talks to. Mr. Bush hails Texas as a place where he can return to his roots. But is he mixing it up there with anyone besides Vulcans, Pioneers and Rangers?
W.'s idea of consolation was to dispatch Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, to talk to Ms. Sheehan, underscoring the inhumane humanitarianism of his foreign policy. Mr. Hadley is just a suit, one of the hard-line Unsweet Neo Cons who helped hype America into this war.
It's getting harder for the president to hide from the human consequences of his actions and to control human sentiment about the war by pulling a curtain over the 1,835 troops killed in Iraq; the more than 13,000 wounded, many shorn of limbs; and the number of slain Iraqi civilians - perhaps 25,000, or perhaps double or triple that. More people with impeccable credentials are coming forward to serve as a countervailing moral authority to challenge Mr. Bush.
Paul Hackett, a Marine major who served in Iraq and criticized the president on his conduct of the war, narrowly lost last week when he ran for Congress as a Democrat in a Republican stronghold in Cincinnati. Newt Gingrich warned that the race should "serve as a wake-up call to Republicans" about 2006.
Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.
But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.
E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com
Thomas L. Friedman is on vacation. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:17 am Post subject: The Counterattack has begun |
| From: Canilor
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:40:52 EDT
Subject: The Counterattack has begun
Thanks to Mary MacElveen for this submission.
The counterattack against Cindy Sheehan has begun. Their cartridge is weak. Cindy has taken the high road and many Americans are taken by her courage and determination. The Looting Class will continue jabbing at her. It is up to us to maintain her defense at the highest level. This might be the beginning of the unraveling of the control exercised by the Looting Class. Remember, the Looting Class has a bunch of presstitutes at their service. Ready to lie for a few bucks.
Bush can not set a timetable because is not in the interest of the looting Class to do so. Where else are they going to make the profits that they are making in Iraq?
Will the Media Marginalize Cindy Sheehan At Some Point?
by Radio Left at 11:56AM (EDT) on August 13, 2005  | Permanent Link  | Cosmos
To My Fellow Americans,
There are a number of items contained within this piece that bother me and leave me wondering if the media will marginalize Cindy Sheehan, forget her and where they will change the news cycle where she is all but forgotten. In today's Newsday, I found this article on page 16A.
In the second paragraph, it almost makes her appear as just another anti war protestor where she is clearly not. The tone of it makes her sound hysterical.
When she states that she will follow him to Washington after his vacation, just the wording of how this piece was written, makes her sound like a stalker instead of a mom demanding answers.
The mention of Casey's grandparents and other relatives stating that she is using her son to vent her anger; I feel is a way of turning public sentiment against her.
But, here is the most critical point launched against her where this article states, “If she comes off too harshly negative toward Bush personally, it could undercut her moral standing as an aggrieved parent and diminish the effectiveness of her arguments.” Let me remind the media that Cindy is doing what the vast majority of journalists out there have failed at doing. She has gone on the offensive and rightfully so.
As we have seen in this “Bush War” many journalists were killed in Iraq while covering it and you would think that many within the media would go after him in honor of their dead colleagues. Apparently not.
According to Ed Sarpolus, a Michigan pollster, "The pulse of the country is more in her court, but if she goes too much after the president it'll backfire," So will the media make her sound like an hysterical mom where in the various pieces they write of her, they will ensure it does backfire?
If you see my points as being valid ones, then I strongly urge all of you reading this to email Newsday a letter using this email address, letters@newsday.com
Thank you,
Mary MacElveen!
Nation
As Bush passes by, mom stays put
Experts: Vigil for her fallen son may distract the president and help fan the flames of a gathering peace drive
WASHINGTON BUREAU
August 13, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq got a drive-by -- twice -- but still no sit-down from President George W. Bush Friday when he left his Texas ranch and passed Cindy Sheehan's anti-war protest.
Bush's motorcade to a $2-million Republican fundraiser passed without incident and without slowing down. Demonstrators erected hundreds of white crosses along the road with the names of fallen soldiers, and Sheehan held up a sign reading, "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"
Outside the tinted windows of Bush's black sport utility vehicle were about 50 demonstrators behind Sheehan -- and a politically perilous situation for a White House already beset with problems over Iraq, analysts agree.
Sheehan started out as a lone visitor to Crawford last Saturday, seeking a meeting with Bush over the death of her son Casey last year, but has become the focal point of a growing anti-war protest outside Bush's ranch that activists hope can finally ratchet up public pressure on Bush to pull out of Iraq.
She has pledged to stay in Texas through Bush's August vacation and even camp out in front of the White House when he returns to Washington if he doesn't meet with her.
For Bush, the Sheehan case poses political risks, analysts say. Ignore a grieving mother, and appear callous. Invite her in, and appear to have caved in to her demands.
Beyond that, analysts say, there also is the risk for Bush that Sheehan is putting a sympathetic face on the death toll in Iraq, emerging on the scene when U.S. public opinion is turning more solidly against the war. Nearly six in 10 Americans in a recent Associated Press poll disapproved Bush's handling of the war.
It doesn't help Bush that the Sheehan story broke shortly after one of the deadliest recent weeks in Iraq. And ultimately, some analysts say, that's Bush's larger problem -- there is little Bush can do to improve public perception of Iraq, especially when he is standing firm against setting any timetable for withdrawal.
"The administration is really prisoner to events here, and to the extent there's bad news, what can the White House say anymore? You can't go on a PR offensive ... if there are more mothers talking about their pain and the loss of their children," said Stu Rothenberg, a Washington political analyst.
Beyond that, the White House has avoided criticizing Sheehan personally, though it has pointed out she already had one meeting with Bush last year, with a group of families.
Other Republican supporters have been more vocal, saying a Vacaville, Calif., Reporter article in June 2004 quoted her as praising Bush. The newspaper took issue with that characterization and reposted the article.
Casey's grandparents and other relatives have accused her of using her son's death to promote her anti-war agenda.
So some analysts also say there are risks for Sheehan: If she comes off too harshly negative toward Bush personally, it could undercut her moral standing as an aggrieved parent and diminish the effectiveness of her arguments.
"The pulse of the country is more in her court, but if she goes too much after the president it'll backfire," said Ed Sarpolus, a Michigan pollster.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usmom0813,0,4634923.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies." George Galloway to US Senate Committee 5/17/05 | | | | Alpha | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
