Cindy Sheehan's Crawford Day
by pessimist
Our own Mother of the Plaza de Mayo - those who stood in protest to oppose the outrages perpetrated by their government in Argentina - continues her vigil in Crawford, Texas, hoping to smoke out King George from his hideout and face her alone in the street.
She Has More Courage Than a Dozen Democratic Senator Wannabees!
The Republicans will let young men and women die to expand empire and save face -- and many Democrats in Washington are too timid to declare the Neo-con fantasy a failed war on terrorism.Cindy Sheehan isn't about to let the truth get run out of America by double-talking con artists who think that they are masters of the universe. Cindy Sheehan traveled to Crawford, Texas to tell George W. Bush that it was time to admit the error and end the bloodshed....
But like the yellow cur he is, George refuses to emerge, instead plotting with the PNAC Petroleum Pirate Posse his next move against Iran - a plan which will only add to the membership of The Mothers of the Ditch.
The ending of this modern farce is in doubt at the moment, as there is much King George can do to exert his unconstitutional power to suppress that which displeases him. But for now, relentless and undaunted, far braver than the 'president' who had to steal his victories while he was too cowardly to go to war himself, Cindy Sheehan stands.
We Don't Have to Be Angry Anymore Day 7
by Cindy Sheehan [via KOS]
Aug 12th, 2005
[Her comments follow in sections of ITALICS]
We had a very interesting day. We had Bush drive by really, really fast twice. I caught a glimpse of Laura. The Bushes were going to a bar-be-que/fundraiser down the road from us.
President passes by anti-war protesters
The Friday political fundraiser and barbecue featuring Bush was at the Broken Spoke Ranch, owned by Stan and Kathy Hickey, who have hosted the annual summer event. It draws the GOP's top fundraisers, known as Pioneers and Rangers, who have generated $100,000 and $200,000 respectively for the party during an election cycle.
[The 230 people attending were among the party's biggest donors - ed]
Traveling a short distance from his ranch Friday to attend a $2 million Republican Party fundraising event, President Bush was in position Friday to get his first live glimpse of the anti-war protest that has grabbed the international spotlight.Cindy Sheehan, the protest leader whose son was killed in U.S. military action in Iraq, held up a sign asking,
as the presidential motorcade passed by.
Because he's a Yellow Elephant Chickenhawk!
But I digress.
I was very surprised that they let us stay so close to Bush.
The group was separated from the road by a line of Secret Service agents and McClennan County Sheriff's officers.
The families of the fallen loved ones held their son's cross from Arlington West while Bush drove by.
The president's motorcade also rolled by rows of about 500 white wooden crosses that protesters have planted on the side of the road, inscribed with the names of soldiers who died in Iraq. Sheehan held up the white cross with her son Casey's name on it.
I bet it didn't even give him indigestion to see so many people protesting his murderous policies.
Sheehan was joined by between 50 and 100 demonstrators, many of whom have lost relatives in Iraq.
But this idiot certainly had digestive distress!
Conservative knucklehead and radio host Mike Gallagher gathered a group of like-minded troglodytes and headed over to the Bush compound in Crawford to harass Cindy Sheehan and her group last night. As Ms. Sheehan and the "Camp Casey" protesters sang America The Beautiful or stood quietly, the right-wing group chanted "we don't care" at the mother who lost her son, Casey, to Bush's war in Iraq.
And it doesn't stop there.
I am a continued thorn in the side to the right-wing bloggers and right wing-nut journalists.
Erick Erickson gets off on attacking Cindy Sheehan
Though RedState.org disallows the use of profanity in their comments, it's sorta ironic that Erick Erickson (an attorney and political consultant in Macon, Georgia) gets a free ride for using the term "whore" to attack someone.But not just for any old someone, but Cindy Sheehan. Is this what he's telling his Republican clients to say about a mother that lost her son in Iraq?
I can't imagine that even an ultra-conservative right-winger politician would follow-up the indecent statement above by uttering something as asinine as: "She wants to attack the President (and Israel) and then hide behind her dead son to avoid criticism. She cannot."
Yes she can, this is America.
Keep shoveling Erick.
One man, Phil Hendry, called me an ignorant cow.
Casey's mom, Cindy, doesn't quite get it. Convinced she knows more about the costs of war than other parents who've suffered similar loss, .... this clueless woman is going to sit there until the President comes out.
[Check out the disclaimer at the end of his 'post' - it speaks volumes about this moron.]
But you know what, the people who have come out from all over the country to give me a hug and take a picture with me and to support the cause of peace, overwhelms me so much, I don't have time to worry about the negativity and the hatred.
President Bush Ditches Mother Of Slain Soldier
Vietnam veteran Jim Waters, not affliated with any activist group, said that he drove overnight from Lubbock alone in support of Sheehan and the Gold Star Families for Peace because he is 'very concerned' about the war in Iraq and wants to ask President Bush:
"One of the principles of leadership is you don’t ask people to do what you yourself don't have the courage to do, and [President Bush] is asking people to fight to their deaths when he himself and most of the architects of this war never served," said Waters, a retired Navy commander and former hospital administrator. "[President Bush] served, but he jumped over 10,000 people to get into the National Guard Champagne Unit, so he could avoid duty in Vietnam. I had to go to Vietnam, and now he's sending them to their deaths - over 1,800 so far.
The people who are slamming me have no idea about what it feels like to unjustly have a child killed in an insane war.
For their beneficial edification, here is what it feels like - from those who know:
"There are no words in the English language that can adequately describe the pain that the loss of my son has caused. The world has lost a citizen of high intelligence, a gifted musician, a kind, perceptive loving young man. The loss of Evan and so many young men and women like him is a loss to our country and the world. They are our future and we are standing by and watching our young die...."Several months ago when George Bush was performing his skit for the media in which he was looking under his desk and under chairs for weapons of mass destruction, I was horrified by the insensitivity of his performance. I thought to myself, here is the president of the United States making a joke out of a pre-emptive war and laughing about WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), the basis for going to war, a war in which my dear son died, over 1,000 coalition troops have died and thousands of Iraqi civilians have died. How dare he!
Roxanne Kaylor, Clifton, Virginia, mother of 1st LT Jeff Kaylor killed in an explosion in Iraq on April 7, 2003
"I am beyond words to express my fury over the latest revelations of how the Bush Administration/CIA manipulated, covered-up, and lied about data to make its case for war.... When you feel betrayed, when you believe that something or someone you love has been wounded and cheated and lied to, the fury that floods a mother's heart is unstoppable."I am so ashamed to be considered an American at this point. I don't even say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing any patriotic songs about our country.... Bush and company say they love America, but they don't love its citizens. I don't think you lie to people you love. I don't think you send them off into dangerous situations on the basis of murky, cobbled-together information that isn't really information at all. I don't think you keep them scared all the time. I don't think you threaten your citizens by saying you are either with us or you are a terrorist....
"We let this government lie to us and we did nothing about it. How could the Congress, the American people, and especially the press have been so stupid to have believed the propaganda of the Bush administration and not demand authenticity?
Nadia McCaffrey, Tracy, California, mother of SGT Patrick Ryan McCaffrey, killed in action in an ambush in Iraq on June 22, 2004
"I'm pretty tough, and I think I'm going to be OK, but the loss is really hard. I thought it would get easier with time, but it's not. The pain is worse now than it was at first. Patrick was my only child, and now he's gone...."Patrick signed up with the National Guard the day after the 9/11 attacks because he wanted to help his country in the event of natural catastrophes or more attacks on our country. But he quickly became disillusioned with U.S. operations in Iraq. After his first mission he called home and he said:
"He was deeply hurt and his voice was very heavy."After that Patrick turned to the Iraqi children. He was asking us to send him cookies, candy, powdered Gatorade, and also toys that he could give the children. In one of the last e-mails that I got from him, he asked for a box of deflated soccer balls with a pump so he could give them to the kids. There is a picture with Patrick glowing with joy sitting on top of a Humvee holding some flowers that the children had given him. This picture was taken not even an hour before his death.
Sue Niederer, Pennington, New Jersey, mother of 1st LT Seth Dvorin who was killed in action in Iraq on February 3, 2004
"Nothing will ever ease my pain. I feel that Mr. Bush and his administration have been deceitful, have lied to us, have total arrogance about them. And my feeling is that Bush is an absolute coward. He is disgrace to this country because he cannot take the time because of guilt to face the parents and relatives of the fallen soldiers. I think this shows a total disrespect for the fallen soldiers...."Donald Rumsfeld said that the troops are fungible, fungible meaning you lose one life, you get another one and put them in there. Lose one, throw another in. My son is not fungible. I asked Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ), how many wives, husbands and children of U.S. congressmen and senators actually are in a war zone in Iraq. You know what he told me? None.
Jean Prewitt, Birmingham, Alabama, mother of PVT Kelley Prewitt who was killed in action in Iraq by enemy fire on April 6, 2003
"I saw the two soldiers in the hall where I worked. 'Please tell me he's just wounded,' I cried. 'Please tell me he's wounded.' They took me to our district manager's conference room and said that Kelley was hit by shrapnel and must have bled to death. After that one of the hardest things was telling my mother. She saw me and said, "What's wrong?" And I told her it was about Kelley. She asked, 'Did he get hurt?' And I said, 'Yes, ma'am, but he didn't make it; he died.' She said, 'Oh, God, not my baby. I wish it had been me.' And she really meant it."One of the worst things after that was seeing Kelley for the first time. But I'm so glad I did; at least he didn't get blown to pieces.... He was such a handsome man, but it didn't even look like him except for his head and his short hair.... Time does take care of a lot of wounds, but it'll never take away the pain that I feel. I visit Kelley every day. A friend of mine from Georgia and I went over there today. And I talked to him and cleaned his grave off. I take a brush and paper towel and water and clean the marker.
"At first I didn't speak out against the war because I believed President Bush. But after Thanksgiving (2003), I began to learn that the information Bush gave us was not correct and that that country (Iraq) was not an imminent threat to us. TV announcers casually say there were two more soldiers killed over there. And you think, 'Well, there's two more families going through what we're going through.'
Renee Stratton, Hart, Michigan, sister of SGT Todd Robbins, killed in action in Iraq on April 3, 2003
"I can't stop crying when I think about my nephew, Todd's 15-year-old son, who has been robbed of his father forever.... I'm sorry if I sound selfish, but when you are asked to give up your loved one for the country of Iraq and its people, it doesn't make sense to me.... My family will live this nightmare until the day we die."There has been much talk about the media showing coffins, names and faces on TV. When the media prints four died today in Iraq, you can't understand what that actually means until you see the casket. Bush stated that he wanted to protect our families' privacy.
Celeste Zappala, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mother of SGT Sherwood Baker, killed in action in Iraq on April 26, 2004
"Let us resist the language that just numbers them all casualties. They were someone's beloved, and they will never touch their face or hear their whispered words of love again. Let us not be lulled into thinking of the dead Iraqis as collateral damage; think of the mother who grabbed her baby daughter and in vain lay on top of her to protect her at the first sound of a bomb. Think of a little boy's hand searching for his brother amidst the rubble. Think of the last breath of my soldier son."Heavy and terrible losses, never to be replaced or made right. Wounds on the living souls of hundreds of thousands to be carried all of the rest of their days. Time will move on; events we can't foresee will dim the memory for some.
"And if the dead could speak to us what would they say? Kill more? Harden your heart with hate? Or would they say to us, please, war is not the answer; find another way?"Let us not romanticize this war in any way; let us look at the carnage with eyes wide open and tell ourselves and our leaders, please, we insist, find another way."
Plus, they have no truth to fight truth with, so they fight truth with more lies and hate.
Ann Lehman, a Crawford resident:
"You dishonour the President, yourself and God when you deny your son the freedom in death that he had in life to choose. He knew the risk when he joined the military, just as President Bush knows the risk for his life every day!" she said.
Here's a view of what the risk is from someone who was there:
Unexpected R & R brings resident home
Johnson's memories are varied of this Middle Eastern country with its very different culture. Driving a fuel truck in the midst of a war certainly wasn't a pleasure drive on a Sunday afternoon. But this patriotic man in his 70s went to that chaotic war zone because as he said in the beginning of his time in Iraq, 'somebody has to go'."IED's are getting bigger and the insurgents are now putting gasoline in them -- it gives off a bigger flash and hotter fire," Jim Johnson said.
According to Johnson, the insurgents are using AK-47s and 50-caliber guns rather than mortars. The accuracy of the mortars is not as good. "One of every three trips, our convoy gets hit," Johnson said. "I've been there two hitches and my truck has been hit seven times.
Shouldn't he be home enjoying the grandkids before King George sends THEM to Iraq?
But I digress.
"Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam"
Three active duty soldiers from Ft. Hood came to visit me and tell me that they really appreciated what I was doing and that if they were killed in the war, their moms would be doing the same thing. That made me feel so good after all of the negativity I had been hearing from the righties. I also got to hold a couple of toddlers on my lap while their mom or dad took pictures of us. I am honored that people have resonated with the action that I took to make our mission of ending the war a reality.
Pictures of caskets show public the awful costs of war
There is no doubt that some of the bad war news is beginning to rub off on the president's popularity. Public opinion polls show his approval rating for handling the Iraqi war has dropped to 38 percent. Of course, there's also the fact that the American people are getting fed up. There are those midterm congressional elections next fall, and Republicans are getting worried that more of the administration's "stay the course" policy is getting stale.
"It's a race against time because by the end of this coming summer we can no longer sustain the presence we have now," said retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who visited Iraq most recently in June and briefed Cheney, Rice and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "This thing, the wheels are coming off it."He said the fading public support represents a genuine hazard for the president: "We want to get out of this. . . . The American people are walking away from this war."
"They want to start withdrawing because they can feel the heat here in the United States," said Larry Diamond, a onetime U.S. adviser in Iraq who has since written Squandered Victory, a scathing appraisal of the postwar occupation. "They know the tolerance for American casualties and this ongoing bloodshed is not going to go on forever."
White House Press Corps Doyenne and outspoken conscience of several presidents had this to say about the way Vietnam taxed the tolerance of the American people, bringing our involvement in it to an end:
The American people - sheltered for the last two years from some photos of the grim reality of the war in Iraq - are beginning to see more pictures of the kind that had previously been suppressed.The ban was apparently prompted by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney who wanted to prevent a repetition of split-screen TV pictures like those in 1989 that showed President H.W. Bush laughing and joking about the swift victory in the U.S. attack on Panama, at the same time that an Air Force transport plane was unloading caskets at Dover.
The White House was furious about the televised contrast.
As the result of a freedom of information lawsuit, the Pentagon has now agreed to release "as expeditiously as possible" some photographs of the caskets of American servicemen and women.
Seeing how cameramen in Iraq today take risks to get photos, I'm reminded of a remark by the famed World War II photographer Robert Capa: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."
The stunning photographs from the Vietnam War are engraved in our memory. In those days print and television news photographers were on hand and took the indelible photographs that brought the war into the American living rooms.
Remember a little Vietnamese girl running down the road aflame from a napalm bomb?
Or the policeman who put a gun to the head of a Viet Cong captive?Public release of the photos depicting the ultimate sacrifice in war is a start in showing the public the cost of this invasion. The Iraqi war will no longer be out of sight and out of mind.
"Bring Them Home Now."
I came here so angry and I have been so encouraged and overwhelmed by the support from all over. I was thinking that there is no reason for us progressive liberals to be angry anymore. We have the power. One mom has shown that we can be the change in our government. We deserve to hold George Bush accountable, no one else does. We have to make sure he answers to us. If he doesn't have to answer to Congress, or the media, we will FORCE him to answer to us. The absolute hubris of him that won't!!!
.... While others in Washington blanch at admitting that the Iraq War was a colossal blunder, Sheehan knows the personal cost of the war, in a way George W. Bush has never known. Cindy's son was killed in action in Iraq last year. Cindy Sheehan has the courage to ask the President of the United States:
One poster had this to say to those who oppose Cindy Sheehan:
I therefore challenge anyone who seeks to criticize Cindy Sheehan to offer-up their son or daughter, their husband or wife or indeed, themselves, in sacrifice for the lie that is Iraq.Until you have, you have nothing to say and you just don't get it.
From your words to Red State minds.
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