| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:58 am Post subject: Normal Life Over for Protesting Mother |
| Monday, 15 August 2005
Normal Life Over for Protesting Mother
By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer
Sunday, 14 August 2005
VACAVILLE, Calif. - Before her son was killed in Iraq, before she began a peace vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch, before she became an icon of the anti-war movement and the face of grieving mothers, there was a time when Cindy Sheehan's life was, by all appearances, incredibly normal.
She grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, and married her high school sweetheart, Patrick Sheehan. They had four babies, one almost every other year. They drove their growing clan in a huge, yellow station wagon nicknamed the "BananaMobile." She volunteered at a Vacaville church and later, as the children grew, she worked there.
Normal life ended for Cindy Sheehan in April 2004, when her oldest son Casey, 24, a father of twin girls, was killed in Iraq.
First, she says, "I was a Mom in deep shock and deep grief."
Then, two months later, came what she considered to be a disturbingly placid meeting with President Bush. While she found him to be a "man of faith," she also said later that he seemed "totally disconnected from humanity and reality." And when she later heard him speak of soldiers' deaths as "noble," Sheehan felt she had to do something.
"The shock has worn off and deep anger has set in," she said.
Sheehan co-founded an anti-war organization and began talking, demonstrating, speaking at a congressional hearing. She got a Web site, a public relations assistant (financed by an anti-war group), an entourage of peace activists and a speaking tour.
But while her message was strong and widely disseminated, she didn't become world famous until about a week ago when, after speaking at the annual Veterans For Peace national conference in Dallas, she took a bus to Crawford, Texas, site of Bush's ranch, to have a word with her president.
For the record, here's what she said she wants to tell him: "I would say, 'What is the noble cause my son died for?' And I would say if the cause is so noble has he encouraged his daughters to enlist? And I would be asking him to quit using Casey's sacrifice to justify continued killing, and to use Casey's sacrifice to promote peace."
Sheehan's peaceful vigil, her unstoppable anguish, her gentle way of speaking, have captured attention for an anti-war movement that until now hasn't had much of a leader. Over the past week she appeared on every major television and radio network and in newspapers around the world.
Critics have started calling her a pawn of the left-wing. Some conservative organizations, talk show hosts and even some of her own extended family accuse her of shifting her position and say she is lowering troop morale.
"To be perfectly honest, I think it is disgraceful," said bookkeeper Diana Kraft of Vacaville, whose son is in the Navy. "I don't know the loss she's feeling to lose a son because, thank goodness, I haven't had that, but we're in this war and we have to support the troops."
Other friends, neighbors and church members argue that she is a hero, and say they're proud of what she's doing.
Dozens of people have joined her and others have sent flowers and food. Other "Camp Casey" demonstrations and vigils are springing up around the country, with signs calling on Bush to "Talk To Cindy." Activists in San Francisco rallied on her behalf Friday; others planned to gather Monday in New York's Union Square.
Tensions flared Saturday at the protest site outside Bush's ranch, with one heated exchange between a Bush supporter and a veteran who opposes the war in Iraq. When the veteran shouted about his war experiences and yelled, "I earned the right to be here!" several of his fellow protesters pulled him away as he sobbed and his knees buckled.
Bush acknowledged Sheehan on Thursday, telling reporters at his ranch that "she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position."
But Bush said Sheehan is wrong on Iraq: "I 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."
Sheehan, a lifelong Democrat, said that until her son died, she'd never spoken out about her views. She was too young during the Vietnam War — "I only saw it on the news and I thought it was horrible," she said. She didn't agree with the first Gulf War, but only talked about it with friends and classmates.
As a child in Bellflower, about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, Sheehan was opinionated, but not outspoken, says her sister, Dede Miller. She was enrolled in programs for gifted students.
She married her first serious boyfriend, Patrick, whom she met when she was 17. They soon had Casey, followed by Carly, Andy and Jane.
"She was an earth mother, a very devoted mom," said Miller.
In 1993, the family moved to Vacaville, midway between San Francisco and Sacramento, where Patrick worked as a sales representative.
The stress of Casey's death prompted Sheehan and her husband to separate, she said.
Sheehan has vowed to remain in Texas through Bush's August vacation, unless he meets with her.
"My whole family would rather I was home more than gone," she said. "Some people have tried to discourage me from doing what I'm doing but I can't be discouraged, I can't be stopped because I know what I'm doing is so important. It's a matter of life or death."
___
Associated Press Writers Lisa Leff in San Francisco and Angela K. Brown in Crawford, Texas contributed to this story. | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:19 am Post subject: Cindy Sheehan Confronts Judith Miller's War |
| Cindy Sheehan Confronts Judith Miller's War
Cindy Sheehan Confronts Judith Miller's War
by Ahmed Amr
(Sunday August 14 2005)
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"Cindy has drawn a line in the sand for George Bush. In doing so, she has energized tens of thousands of peace activists and tens of millions of Americans. By now, it should be clear that Sheehan is speaking for the silent majority of Americans who want some straight answers from Bush instead of bumper sticker slogans."
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This war can best be told by narrating the stories of two women. One woman played an instrumental role in launching the invasion of Iraq and the other is determined to end the occupation and bring the troops home. One woman wants to shed light on the lies that led to war and the other is willing to hide in jail to avoid telling the truth about her role in this catastrophe.
One lady is the mother of a fallen soldier who only demands a few rational answers as to why her son died. The second is a war mongering tramp and WMD huckster who refuses to divulge her role in outing Valerie Plame. One woman is an outsider demanding a single hour of the President’s attention. The other is a power broker from Sulzberger’s New York Times with ready access to Bush administration insiders like Karl Rove and Lewis Libby. One woman is invigorating the entire peace movement and the other is a bona fide neo-con operative of a War Party in retreat.
Cindy Sheehan wants to tell the very same tale that Judith Miller refuses to narrate. Miller was a one-woman propaganda squad on a mission to blast American minds with weapons of mass deception. She marketed the war that Cindy refused to buy. Even so, it was Cindy’s son who ended up paying the ultimate price at the age of 24.
Cindy has been compared favorably to Rosa Parks who ignited the civil rights struggle by refusing to move to the back of the bus. I think a more apt historical comparison is to a union electrician and a Polish patriot – Lech Walesa. Cindy and her band of supporters in Crawford are electrifying the nation with a crusade for the truth as to the reasons we went to war.
If the war wasn’t for the WMDs that Miller promised. If it wasn’t justified by the neo-con canard that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda and was involved in the 9/11 atrocities. Then why did Bush send Casey Sheehan and nearly two thousand of his comrades to kill and die in the deserts of the Gulf? For the record, Casey Sheehan died after volunteering for a dangerous mission to save wounded soldiers in Sadr City. Why can’t Bush demonstrate a fraction of Casey’s courage by sparing an hour to meet Cindy?
The Mess on Potamia started when the president decided to illegally attack Iraq under the cover of the ‘war on terror.’ We now have ample evidence that his decision resulted in establishing a production line for insurgents fueled by anger and rage at the humiliating conquest of their country. Recent reports reveal that by the summer of 2002, Bush and Blair had already initiated hostilities by intensifying air strikes to soften up Iraqi targets. The Downing Street Memos are yet another confirmation that WMD intelligence was fixed and that the decision to go to war was made long before it was announced to the public. And the Plame games prove that Joseph Wilson was punished for refusing to go along with the Yellow cake uranium scam and for exposing the ‘intelligence failure’ cover-up.
Bush’s neo-cons brigades - including Judith Miller - continue to dodge any further probing of the WMD hoax. They lied in the firm belief that - once their delusional expectations materialized - they would be forgiven for the minor sin of telling WMD fibs.
Cindy Sheehan’s only sin is that she wants to force a frank and constructive national debate about the hidden agenda behind this war. She is demanding a clear definition of the ‘noble mission’ the President keeps talking about. And she wants an exit plan. So far, the response from the White House is that no such discussion is warranted.
Bush continues to hide behind the 9/11 atrocities – a blow back catastrophe that happened on his watch and as a result of foreign policies engineered by his dad. He responded to the 9/11 assaults by immediately putting Iraq on the short list of countries that were in dire need of an American invasion. He lied about the WMDs and was wrong about the cost and wrong about the outcome. It took him a year to cope with the fact that he had an insurgency on his hand. He now insists on ‘staying the course’ while navigating a maze that brings a new unexpected twist every day. By now, even Bush must realize that the net result of his misadventure in Mesopotamia will be a theocratic republic or a civil war or both.
Judith Miller and Cindy Sheehan’s tales are intertwined. Both narratives are directly connected to this war of choice. One of them is a hero and one of them is a villain. One of them seeks answers for the nation and the other keeps secrets to protect her neo-con friends in high place. The hero of this epic is taking on the combined forces of the administration and mass media moguls – both intent of drowning her voice in the shark infested waters off the coast of Aruba.
The mass media pundits have taken to writing odes to Miller as a ‘free speech martyr’ while simultaneously unleashing Karl Rove’s neo-con attack squads to muzzle Cindy. They send their investigative reporters in search of the flimsiest excuse to smear the lady from Vacaville. They attack Sheehan’s character and motives while refusing to probe Miller’s neo-con ideological baggage and her intimate connections with the Office of Special Plans.
Even as she emerges as a unifying leader of the anti-war movement, Sheehan is being portrayed as a vulnerable woman manipulated by leftist ‘peace extremists’ who are exploiting her grief. Of course, the reality is that conservative and libertarian pundits were among the first to man the barricades in opposition to this war. This is not Vietnam. This time around, the anti-war movement includes Americans from across the political spectrum – from Patrick Buchanan on the right to Ralph Nader on the left.
The War Party fixers are now claiming that Cindy has already been granted enough face time with Bush. Apparently, the president is already sacrificing enough of his five-week siesta for Republican fund raising. It doesn’t seem to matter that most of the questions Cindy wants answered relate to matters that became public knowledge long after her one and only ten minute encounter with the president – a meeting where Cindy generously accepted the President’s condolences for her son’s death.
By now, Bush must realize that Sheehan is not going to pack up and return to Vacaville. Thanks to journalists from the alternative and international press, her compelling message is getting through to millions of Americans. After denying her coverage for the first week, even the mainstream media is now on the story – if only to defuse her message and smear her reputation.
The administration is now trying to reduce their conflict with Sheehan to a dispute between Americans who want to ‘cut and run’ and those who want to ‘stay the course and complete some yet to be defined noble mission.’ But Cindy Sheehan is not only demanding an immediate withdrawal of American troops – she also wants to know why they were sent to Iraq in the first place and she wants Bush to explain their current mission and elaborate on why he considers it noble. She is also demanding that the President desist from using Casey’s sacrifice to justify sending more young soldiers to an early grave.
The only thing Bush has going for him now is the neo-con mass media brigades. We’ve all had excellent exposure to their talent for burying a story. To avoid embarrassing themselves, the media moguls have gone to great lengths to bury the Plame/Miller scandal. Karl Rove and Lewis Libby have drifted already back into the background without sustaining a scratch in the Plame games. The Israel/AIPAC spy ring at the Pentagon is another story that vanished without a trace. CNN and FOX have permanently relocated their staff to Aruba and can hardly be expected to chew gum and cover a tourist homicide at the same time. Instead of confronting the president with the same questions that Cindy is asking – they insist on joining a smear campaign led by the usual low life suspects.
Cindy has drawn a line in the sand for George Bush. In doing so, she has energized tens of thousands of peace activists and tens of millions of Americans. By now, it should be clear that Sheehan is speaking for the silent majority of Americans who want some straight answers from Bush instead of bumper sticker slogans. One out of three Americans already backs her demand for an immediate withdrawal and two out of three think that the war was a rotten idea from the start. Given the cost in blood and treasure, shouldn’t every American support a spirited debate between citizen Sheehan and her President? Doesn’t the disastrous outcome of this venture entitle Cindy Sheehan to ask a few uncomplicated questions about Judith Miller’s war?
Source:
by courtesy & © 2005 Ahmed Amr
Ahmed Amr is an American and the former editor of NileMedia.com. His writings have focused on the mass media’s iron grip on the state.
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