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A Mother And the President
A woman lost her son in Iraq and won't leave George W. Bush alone until he sees her. Who is she, and why is she stirring such emotion?
By BY AMANDA RIPLEY IN CRAWFORD
Cindy Sheehan, 48, is not a natural-born revolutionary. She speaks in a high, almost childlike voice. She says like as often as any teenager, as in, "This whole thing was like so freaking spur of the moment." When her supporters gather to discuss strategy, Sheehan is not to be found in the circle of beach chairs; she is 50 yards up the road, doing yet another interview, hugging yet another stranger. But here she is, the mother of Casey, 24, who died in Iraq last year, and now the central character in the strange, swirling protest she initiated two miles down the road from President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Sheehan is unflinching about why she's here. She says George W. Bush killed her son. She demands that U.S. troops come home now, and she insists on telling that to Bush personally. She speaks without caveat. "I'm not afraid of anything since my son was killed," she says. But she has never been one to move quietly through life. Father Michael McFadden, a priest she once worked for, calls her "very defiant, very stubborn, very strong willed" when dealing with authority. When a soldier from the local base comes by to argue with her, she asks him to go for a walk. She puts her arm around him. Soon they are hugging. Her friends call her Attila the Honey.
Back home in California, her family is imploding under its grief. Sheehan lost her job at Napa County Health and Human Services because of all her absences, she says. Husband Pat, 52, couldn't bear having Casey's things at home and put most of them in storage. "We grieved in totally different ways," Cindy says. "He wanted to grieve by distracting himself. I wanted to immerse myself." A car tinkerer, he added two 1969 VW Bugs to his collection recently and diverted some of his sorrow into them. The couple separated in June.
Daughter Carly, 24, wrote a poem that begins, "Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?" Surviving son Andy, 21, supports his mother in principle but recently sent her a long e-mail imploring her "to come home because you need to support us at home," he says. Casey's aunt Cherie Quartarolo e-mailed a California radio station last week to rebuke Cindy, writing, "She appears to be promoting her own personal agenda at the expense of her son's good name."
Outside her family circle, Sheehan's crusade has been just as divisive. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin has called the protesters "terrorist-sympathizing agitators." But at a time when 56% of the respondents in a CNN poll say they think the war is going poorly, this wandering mother has tapped into a national well of worry: Are our troops dying in vain? "People were looking for something to do," says Sheehan. Now they are calling to see whether they can sign over their Social Security checks to her.
Still, it is hard to know when a flash-fire protest in a prairie will turn into something more. Surely it didn't happen when Martin Sheen called (which was on Day 5). Nor did it when the police donned riot gear, as they did on Day 7, when the President's motorcade came within 100 feet of Sheehan's ramshackle encampment. (Riot gear is casual fashion for police at protests these days, after all.) Attendance figures--about 100 by midweek--did not break any records either.
But the people who did come made it seem different from other antiwar spasms. A retired postal worker drove from San Diego for 26 hours. A local soldier who had just returned from Iraq appeared with his mom. And a truck driver--a former Marine who had never been to an antiwar protest before--decided to pull his 18-wheeler full of frozen pizzas into Crawford just to shake Sheehan's hand.
At her roadside uprising, Sheehan feels only muted satisfaction. Sitting in a van, momentarily insulated from followers and other reporters, she says more than once that she feels like a failure. Even if the troops came back tomorrow, it would still be too late for her son. "I really failed Casey. I really did," she says, tearing up. Throughout his childhood in California, Casey and his mother were close. An altar boy for 10 years, Casey enlisted in 2000 hoping to make a career as a military chaplain's assistant. He had decided to wait to have sex until he was married. "He took lots of heat for that in the Army. Pat and I always wondered why he would even tell anyone he was still a virgin," Sheehan wrote on TruthOut.org "but he did."
Casey Sheehan was killed in Sadr City on April 4, 2004, less than a month after he arrived in Iraq as a humvee mechanic. He had gone out on a voluntary mission to rescue injured soldiers when his unit was ambushed. Six other soldiers died with him. Says his brother Andy: "He lived to help people, and he died helping people." On the day he died, Cindy saw a burning humvee on CNN and says she knew instinctively that her son was among the dead.
Sheehan's impulsive decision to come to Crawford--with five people, some chairs and no flashlights--has spawned a small phenomenon. A busload of counterprotesters, organized by a conservative radio personality in Dallas, arrived to sing God Bless America. A Japanese peace-activist group donated money for Porta Potties. Chad Griffin, a Los Angeles--based p.r. agent who worked in the Clinton White House, came up with the idea of cutting an ad featuring Sheehan's plea to speak with Bush. With $12,000 in donations, the ad is running in Crawford.
That's exactly the kind of move the White House hopes will play into its hands. Once Sheehan starts acting like a politician, say some Republicans and even some Democrats, she will become just another voice in the debate--easy, in other words, to neutralize. But until then, Bush's team cannot fire back hard, as it usually does when it is criticized. Sheehan must be handled, as an adviser to the President put it, "very carefully." And that's what it has been struggling to do. Top officials went out to talk to Sheehan but failed to appease her. The President acknowledged her obliquely last week in response to a question about Iraq, saying he shared her pain. The White House, quantifying his compassion, put out a list of the meetings Bush has held with families. (He has met with the relatives of 272 deceased U.S. soldiers so far.) A senior aide who was present at many of the meetings estimates that a little less than 10% of the relatives tell Bush their loved ones died in vain. "He's had a couple wives who were very upset," says the aide. "They didn't yell at him or hit him or anything like that. But on more than one occasion, they've made very clear their position."
And the White House noted that Bush met with Sheehan too, two months after Casey died. She had always had misgivings about the war, and she says she had mixed feelings about Bush's demeanor at the meeting, but she kept quiet. When more information came out about the planning for the war, however, she started to feel utterly betrayed.
But White House aides say they worry about the precedent, should Bush see Sheehan again. "If the President meets with her, does he have to meet with every protester who camps out in Crawford or in Lafayette Park [in Washington]?" asks a Bush aide. "Does he have a second meeting with every mother or wife who asks for one?"
A fair question. There is a risk, though, that Sheehan's ideas will never stop spreading down the road. In 1965 a group of just 25 antiwar protesters demonstrated outside President Lyndon Johnson's Texas ranch. Within a few years, the handful had turned into a movement. --With reporting by Amanda Bower/San Francisco, Jay Carney/Washington and Hilary Hylton/Crawford
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1093760,00.html
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Dead soldier's mom brings anti-war protest to Bush
14 Aug 2005 20:27:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Tabassum Zakaria
CRAWFORD, Texas, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The mother of a dead American soldier who brought the anti-war movement into President George W. Bush's backyard has become a symbol for those who want U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004, has pitched a tent on the side of a country road that leads to the president's ranch and refuses to go away until he speaks to her.
She has grabbed the national spotlight and developed an almost cult-like following, drawing supporters to this Texas town, which has a population of 705.
Cars line up near her campsite on a two-lane road that winds through farmland, from states like Kansas, Colorado and Florida, with messages such as "Crawford bound to support Cindy" scrawled on windows.
Bush, who met with Sheehan once shortly after her son's death, has said he grieves for every death but will not prematurely pull troops out of Iraq. Opinion polls show public approval dropping for the president's handling of the war, in which more than 1,800 American soldiers have died.
"I was just fed up. When the 14 Marines were killed, and when George Bush said again that they died for a noble cause, and he said we have to complete the mission by honoring the sacrifices of the fallen heroes, that was it, I just was so enraged," Sheehan said in an interview with Reuters.
"If it's such a noble cause, why aren't his daughters over there?"
She sits in a white plastic chair wearing a straw hat, a white shirt with a picture of her son, and a tattoo on her left ankle: "Casey '79-'04." Visitors pay homage, kneeling down, grabbing her hand or hugging her, saying they support her.
Those who have gathered include parents with children fighting in Iraq, parents whose children died in Iraq, former soldiers who fought in Iraq and clergy.
'WE WERE USED'
Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who addressed protesters from the bed of a red pickup truck, called Sheehan "our Rosa Parks," in a reference to the black woman who triggered civil rights protests after she was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger.
Sherry Bohlen of Scottsdale, Arizona, came to Crawford after seeing Sheehan on television. Bohlen tears up when she talks about her son, Thor Bohlen, 36, who has been in Iraq for a month. "My son joined the Army to serve his country, he didn't join to serve a lie," Bohlen said.
Hart Viges, 29, who joined the Army because of the Sept. 11 attacks said: "We were used. I believe the government betrayed the United States armed forces. They sent them out on a mission that was meant for something other than weapons of mass destruction." Viges, who returned from Iraq last year, has since left the military.
Sheehan said she has been overwhelmed by the response. "The movement was already in place, it just took somebody to be a catalyst to spark it off," she said.
Not everyone in Crawford is happy about the protesters. One resident made his opinion clear with a shotgun blast that rang out on his nearby ranch on Sunday.
Sheehan said in a statement that protesters had not infringed on the rancher's property. "As to the neighbor's suggestion that we go home, we suggest he talk to his permanent neighbor, President Bush. We are not leaving until President Bush meets with us and answers our questions about why our sons are dead."
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relations firm Fenton Communications was hired to help organize media coverage for Sheehan and is being paid by TrueMajority, a nonprofit advocacy project founded by Ben Cohen, co-founder of the Ben and Jerry's ice cream company.
Sheehan, a Democrat, rejects any suggestion that her actions are politically motivated against a Republican president.
"I don't think this is being politically active," she said. "I see it as life and death, war and peace. It just so happens that the party who is the most war-like and that wants the war the most is the Republican Party."
But she also had plenty of criticism for Democrats.
"They vote for the funding, or they voted to give Bush the authority to go to war. They won't stand up and say well we voted to give you the authority, now we're going to take it away," she said. "A lot of Democrats are very wishy-washy."
Sheehan said she has been asked by several groups to consider running for Congress, but dismissed that, saying she is a one-issue activist -- bringing U.S. troops home.
She is already booked for the whole of September with speaking engagements and other activities in Italy, Colorado, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.
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Antiwar sentiment gets championCindy Sheehan's vigil outside Bush's Texas ranch brings focus to a protest movement that's been largely unseen and ineffective.
By Brad Knickerbocker and Kris Axtman | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor
ASHLAND, ORE., AND CRAWFORD, TEXAS – In her high-profile vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Cindy Sheehan has brought the face and the heart of the antiwar movement to the world.
The plain-spoken words and image of a mother carrying a wooden cross to commemorate the son she lost in Iraq have suddenly brought focus to what has been largely an unseen and ineffective protest movement in the US.
To be sure, this is still not Kent State in 1970. For a variety of political and practical reasons, today's antiwar movement may never approach the ardor of a generation ago. Moreover, many conservatives criticize Ms. Sheehan for being co-opted by the broader political left - itself a reflection of the crosscurrents of the time.
Yet the mother, hoisting her plaintive signs and vowing to stay in Crawford until she gets a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Bush, has become a potent personal symbol of opposition to a war now stretching into its third year. More important, her crusade comes at a time when doubts about US engagement there are clearly growing.
"One keeps hearing that the number of queries coming into conscientious objector advisory groups are on the upswing," says retired US Army Colonel Dan Smith, a Vietnam veteran now working for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobbying group. "College campuses are stirring. Facts suggest a rising antiwar sentiment is in the making."
The depth of America's ambivalence is reflected in the polls. A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll this month, echoing other surveys, shows that Americans by a 55-44 majority now believe the US "made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq." Some 56 percent say some or all US troops should be withdrawn now.
The hardening sentiment hasn't gone unnoticed in Washington. Many Democrats have become more vocal about the need for a definitive timetable for the withdrawal of troops, and they have been joined of late by some Republicans. The recent special congressional election in Ohio - where the Democrat was an Iraq war vet who nearly won in a heavily Republican district - has added to concerns about the war in some GOP circles.
Within the military, some senior commanders have talked about a timeframe for starting to bring home troops. But late last week, Bush tamped down any expectations of a quick withdrawal, saying it was too soon to say when the number of troops might be reduced.
This is no Vietnam era
Still, for all the concern about Iraq, the antiwar movement today isn't likely to reach the levels of Vietnam. For one thing, there are fundamental reasons why this war is distinctly different: the lack of military conscription, a relatively low level of American casualties (at least compared to Vietnam, where more than 30 times as many US soldiers were killed), and the absence of a self-conscious youth culture.
"What made the antiwar movement so powerful during the Vietnam War was its close connection to the movement of millions of baby-boomers through college," says national security analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "Away from home for the first time and insulated from military service by student deferments, many of these adolescents were acutely aware of their susceptibility to the draft once they completed college. Opposition to the war became part of a generational identity, particularly among middle-class students in universities."
Today, some of the not-so-silent minority worried about the war includes military veterans and their families. Jan Barry, a founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, says that when his group posted a statement of opposition to the Iraq war on a website shortly before the conflict started, it was signed by some 4,000 vets and family members, many of whom were retired. What surprised him, though, was the number of second and third generation military who signed up - including many World War II vets.
Activists say the grumbling about the war extends to some in the active-duty ranks. Even though there is no draft today, they note that the war has stretched on long enough, and has involved enough multiple deployments of many older National Guard and Reserve troops with family and work responsibilities back home, that misgivings are surfacing.
"We don't have a 'conscription draft,' as we say, but we have an economic draft [recruiters increasingly targeting poorer high school students], a backdoor draft with the National Guard and Reserves [who now make up more than 40 percent of US troops in Iraq], with the stop-loss program and the calling up of the Individual Ready Reserves," says Steve Morse of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, which offers counseling on a "GI Hotline" at 13 locations around the country.
Where the soldiers stand
The group Iraq Veterans Against the War was launched a year ago. Yet like its Vietnam counterpart in the 1960s and 70s, it remains a minority voice.
In a survey of service members earlier this year, readers of Military Times publications agreed that the US should have gone to war in Iraq by a 60-21 percent margin. The University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey last fall found that 64 percent of military personnel sampled (compared to 45 percent of the general population) said the situation in Iraq had been worth going to war over. Among those who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan, however, that dropped to 55 percent.
In any case, GI's seem to take a realistically sober view of the war. The Military Times survey found that about half thought it would take 5-10 years for the US to achieve its goals in Iraq. A plurality (47 percent) thought the media should publish or broadcast news stories "that suggest the war is not going well," and 65 percent said "it should be OK to publish photographs of flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base from Iraq."
'Camp Casey'
On the road outside Bush's ranch, the view is even more sober - and the anger more prevalent.
"I have a feeling that a lot of people have found their voice in her [Cindy Sheehan]," says Hadi Jawad, an activist in Dallas who helped found "Peace House" in Crawford near the Bush ranch. "She is articulating what is in their hearts."
About a dozen military families have arrived to lend a hand in the Sheehan protest. They come from Alabama, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas - and most have lost a loved one.
"We are here for all the soldiers who don't have a voice anymore," says Sergio Torres, whose son Army Sgt. Daniel Torres was killed in February when a roadside bomb hit his unarmored Humvee.
At what's called "Camp Casey," after her son who was killed, Sheehan is shepherded from interview to interview, sometimes using a protester's van to take media calls on a cell phone. Outside her tent, supporters have placed flowers and signs.
Since arriving Aug. 6, she has endured Texas thunderstorms, jalapeño heat, and unfriendly stares from some local people. "Last night I had fire ants crawling all over me," Sheehan says. "Physically it's very uncomfortable, but I think of all the soldiers in Iraq who, when it's too hot or too stormy, can't go into town for refuge. As bad as we have it here, it's nothing compared to how bad they have it over there."
The president's motorcade passed by for the first time on Friday, on its way to a Republican fundraiser down Prairie Chapel Road. But even if she doesn't get to meet with him, Sheehan says, "I've accomplished a lot by putting this war back on the front page where it should be."
At that moment, a counter-protester appeared with a sign that read, "Your son is a hero, not a victim!" Sheehan was whisked away before the two could meet.
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Doubt on war grows in U.S.
Even supporters say the effort isn't worth loss of American lives
By Mark Silva and Mike Dorning, Tribune national correspondents. Mark Silva reported from Pennsylvania and Mike Dorning from South Carolina; Tribune national correspondents Tim Jones, Vincent J. Schod
Published August 14, 2005
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- As surely as sweet-corn stands and rolling farmland give way to the boxlike tract housing of new suburbs here, President Bush is losing ground on the battlefield of public opinion when it comes to the war in Iraq.
Even among Republicans who cheered the invasion of Iraq two years ago, and some who supported Bush's re-election and his exhortation to "stay the course," the ongoing loss of American life without a clear course for withdrawal is taking a toll.
Growing opposition to the conflict, as well as a diminishing sense that it is making Americans safer from terrorism at home, is reflected in an array of recent opinion polls.
It also resounds in a series of interviews with voters from the blossoming suburbs and withering steel-mill warrens outside Pittsburgh to the old cotton-mill country and military-minded precincts of South Carolina. Frustration and perplexity are voiced from Southern California to Terre Haute, Ind.
"Two or three years ago, when everything started, I thought it was a good idea," said Laura French, a Republican from Evan City, Pa. "But now I think enough is enough. It's time to come home."
It is not only the growing death toll that has eroded American support for the war, according to those interviewed, but also the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And it's the failure to capture Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"A couple of years ago, I thought the invasion of Iraq was justified," said Victor Diaz, a 30-year-old consultant in Los Angeles. "I believed the reports that stated Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and figured it would only be a matter of time before they were found."
Growing doubts could make it difficult for Bush to maintain support for a continuing presence of nearly 140,000 troops.
Down the road from the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he is spending August, Cindy Sheehan, mother of a 24-year-old soldier who died in Iraq, has set up camp to demand a troop withdrawal. "I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan . . . and I've thought long and hard about her position," Bush said last week. But he reaffirmed that pulling out "would be a mistake."
Progress hard to define
There are few clear markers for success in Iraq, such as territory gained or a new government secured, to convince the public that things are going well.
"This is a war where progress is very hard to define, and because progress is hard to define, Americans aren't seeing enough of it," said Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania.
A majority of Americans--54 percent in the latest Gallup Poll-- now say the U.S. made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq. That's up from 46 percent who called the invasion a mistake in March.
A minority--just 34 percent in a Newsweek survey earlier this month, and 38 percent in a similar Associated Press-Ipsos survey--approve of Bush's handling of Iraq. That's down 10 percentage points since March in Newsweek's polling and down 8 points in AP's polling.
Steady numbers of Americans surveyed--59 percent in the latest CBS survey July 29-Aug. 2, and 60 percent and more in CBS surveys since May--say the result of fighting in Iraq has not been worth the loss of American life or other costs of the war.
At the outset of the invasion in March 2003, an overwhelming majority of Americans backed the war.
Now, even among war supporters, a shift in tone is emerging. Country music has celebrated the war effort with songs of patriotism, but the new hit making its way up the country charts, Trace Adkins' "Arlington," is a mournful tribute to the sacrifice of a new generation.
In the gentle hills of upstate South Carolina, a deeply conservative bastion, the tradition of military service runs strong, and voters instinctively rally to support the troops. But the duration of the conflict in Iraq and the continuing casualty toll are stirring unease even there.
Rural Pickens County has produced an extraordinary four winners of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest tribute for combat valor. And last year, people lined streets and waved flags for another local hero: Army Capt. Kimberly Hampton, 27, a former student body president from Easley High School, killed when the helicopter she piloted was shot down near Fallujah, Iraq, in January 2004.
Outside a new red-brick library named in honor of Hampton, Steve Howard, a 33-year-old printer on his way to prepare a Sunday school lesson, allowed that mounting casualties and slow progress in Iraq have given him pause.
"I got my doubts about things. But I still support the president," Howard said.
Beth Padgett is editorial page editor for The Greenville News in South Carolina, which editorializes in favor of the war.
"There is some unease" in the region, she said. "Everybody wants it to be over. There's been more sacrifice than most people, including me, thought there would be 2 1/2 years ago."
In this region, which maintained strong support for the Vietnam War even after much of the rest of the country turned against it, Padgett said, most people remain determined to see through the mission in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Bush's job approval has sunk to below 50 percent, with voters expressing discontent with his handling of Iraq and the economy at home. Republicans worry--and Democrats hope--that dissatisfaction with the war will spill into the 2006 congressional elections.
"It was an issue in the last election, and it will be in the next election," said Rep. Melissa Hart, a Republican representing a six-county swath of western Pennsylvania who reported hearing concern from constituents but insisted they have not abandoned the cause.
"In light of the casualties and other concerns, people have an expected level of concern," Hart said. "But I never hear anything suggesting that we should pull out. The president has outlined his expectations for what we need to do, and I think a significant number of people understand that we are preparing the Iraqis to form their own government."
Impatience in Wisconsin
But Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who in June proposed a resolution calling for a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, spoke of a growing impatience even across conservative rural regions of northern Wisconsin that initially showed strong support for the war.
"It's one of the things I'm most certain of in my 23 years as a public official and after over 900 listening sessions or town meetings over 13 years," Feingold said. "This is one of the clearest messages I've ever received."
Yet polling and interviews suggest that while many support an eventual withdrawal of American troops, few favor an immediate pullout.
"I believe the U.S. can win, but we have to stick to it," said John Esparza, 45, a computer specialist and conservative Republican from Marietta, Ga., near Atlanta. "If we pull out, they will start showing up here."
"We need to be there and we need to finish the job," said Debra Mathew, an office manager for a satellite television company in Terre Haute whose support for the war is unwavering.
Yet Mathew would find plenty of disagreement from passersby on the grounds of the old limestone courthouse in downtown Terre Haute, where more than 400 names are chiseled into tall memorials commemorating those killed in two world wars, Korea and Vietnam--plus one name, that of 29-year-old Kyle Childress, who was killed last January in Iraq.
"I'm not sure going there was the right thing to do," Richard Liston, a 58-year-old Vietnam War veteran in Terre Haute, said of Iraq.
Just a couple of blocks away from the war memorial, Indiana State University student Beth Shaw, 26, who served stateside as a Middle East linguist in the Army for five years until a medical discharge in 2002, said there is "no way we can win, or whatever it is we call winning."
Calls for withdrawal are coming from some of Bush's staunchest supporters. Clyde Graham, a retired trucking industry salesman in Wexford, Pa., twice voted for Bush.
"At the time, I felt we should stay the course," Graham said of the 2004 election. "I'm questioning that now."
The war cost Bush the vote of Graham's wife, Margaret, also a Republican, who supported Bush's election in 2000 but not his re-election.
"New things are cropping up all the time to frighten us," she said. "They don't frighten me, they annoy me--sending all our boys over there in a useless war."
Pennsylvania has lost 87 soldiers and Marines in Iraq.
One, Army Sgt. Carl Morgain, a 40-year-old National Guardsman, was killed by a car bomb on May 22.
He came from fast-growing Butler County north of Pittsburgh.
Another, Army Spec. Shawn Davies, 22, died of a non-combat illness last year. He came from Aliquippa, in Beaver County west of Butler.
Beaver and Butler Counties are very different. In Beaver County, home to hulking remains of steel mills along the cliff-lined banks of the merging Ohio and Beaver Rivers, jobs have vanished and vacant stores line the long main boulevard of Beaver Falls.
In Butler County, the strip malls and franchise sandwich shops of Cranberry Township sprout across the street from old red barns.
The population of Beaver is shrinking, the population of Butler growing. Beaver voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, Butler for Bush.
`Dying for nothing'
Yet voices questioning the war can be heard in both places.
Ruth Carlson of Aliquippa, a Navy veteran, voted for Bush in 2000. So did her husband, an Air Force veteran. But neither voted for Bush in 2004.
"We usually vote Republican," Carlson said. "Come around this time, we couldn't vote for [bush]. . . . If they came after my son, I'd have to get him out of the country. We don't want our child going over there and dying for nothing."
Vern Derryberry helps his daughter with a dusty antique shop in Beaver Falls when he's not working at a warehouse in Cranberry Township.
"I was all for Afghanistan," he said. "But they went in looking for bin Laden, and they never finished that. Then they started the war in Iraq. Everybody said it would turn into a quagmire, and it's turned into what everybody said."
The death toll has started to wear even on those who maintain the war was not a mistake.
"It's hard to sit and watch the boys come home in body bags," says Rod Vingle, a banker in Cranberry Township.
"I originally supported [the war] and have wavered back and forth."
Across the country, it's the absence of the threat that Iraq was supposed to pose that most troubles Dale Blake, 42, a Los Angeles construction worker.
"When it all started, we were hearing about nuclear weapons, gas, biological weapons, all sorts of stuff," Blake says. "Of course I thought we should get rid of stuff like that. But now we know that was all bull, and so I now believe I was wrong. But maybe wrong because I was lied to from the start. How are we going to get out? That's what I want to know."
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Bush Ducks Mother of Dead Soldier.
http://win20ca.audiovideoweb.com/ca20win15004/motorcade512K.wmv
By ALAN FREEMAN
Friday, August 12, 2005 Updated at 3:45 AM EDT
From Friday's Globe and Mai
Washington — As the Iraq war continues to produce growing U.S. casualties and shrinking public support, President George W. Bush was forced yesterday to confront the protest of a grieving mother of a soldier killed in the war. But he still won't meet her. As Cindy Sheehan camped out on a road leading to Mr. Bush's ranch near Crawford, Tex., for the sixth consecutive day, insisting she wants to speak to the President personally, Mr. Bush said he sympathizes with her plight, but rejected her call to pull the troops out of Iraq.
Ms. Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in an ambush in Sadr City, Baghdad's sprawling Shia neighbourhood, last year, just five days after he arrived in Iraq.
"I begged him not to go," says Ms. Sheehan, 48, who travelled from her home in California to try to speak with Mr. Bush as he spends his summer vacation at his Prairie Chapel Ranch. "I said, 'I'll take you to Canada,' but he said, 'Mom, I have to go. It's my duty. My buddies are going.'
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"I don't believe his phony excuses for the war," Ms. Sheehan has said of the President. She said she believes the war is really about oil and making Mr. Bush's friends richer. "I want him to tell me why my son died."
Anti-war activists are converging on Crawford, eager to seize on Ms. Sheehan's newfound notoriety and telegenic appeal to get their message across.
On Saturday, Mr. Bush dispatched deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin to meet with her to try to defuse the situation, but it just gave Ms. Sheehan more attention.
Mr. Hadley said that Mr. Bush is very sensitive to the losses being sustained by military families, pointing out that he has already met privately with the families of more than 200 of the fallen.
"He believes that they are engaged in a noble cause and it's terribly important for the safety and security of our country. And he respects her views, but respectfully disagrees."
Yesterday, Mr. Bush felt obliged to respond himself. "She feels strongly about her position and she has every right in the world to say what she believes," Mr. Bush told a news conference. "And 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."
Mr. Bush said he grieves for every death in Iraq. "It breaks my heart to think about a family weeping over the loss of a loved one. I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place."
Yet there was no sign Mr. Bush intends to meet Ms. Sheehan. In fact, there were reports he is travelling solely by helicopter when he leaves the ranch in an effort to avoid racing past the protester in a limousine.
"The President says he feels compassion for me," Ms. Sheehan said, "but the best way to show that compassion is by meeting with me and the other mothers and families who are here.
"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."
Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas who has studied Mr. Bush's rise, said: "For him, meeting this woman face to face would be blinking. His whole game is to be confident and to appear never to doubt and never to waiver. It's this idea of determination."
And unlike government leaders in a parliamentary system who are challenged directly by their political opponents, Mr. Bush can easily shelter himself from such confrontations.
"He would not trust himself in a face-to-face meeting and neither would his staff. These guys like control," said Prof. Jillson, who added that Ms. Sheehan's protest in itself may not be that significant but it comes at a time when many Americans are reconsidering their views of the Iraq war.
Approval of Mr. Bush's handling of the conflict has dropped to as little as 34 per cent of people surveyed, according to a recent poll conducted for Newsweek magazine.
But only 33 per cent of Americans say the solution is withdrawing all troops, according to a recent Gallup Poll. Another 23 per cent say some of the troops should be withdrawn while 41 per cent say troop levels should remain the same or be increased.
Ms. Sheehan's protest comes at a particularly bloody time for U.S. troops in the war as roadside bombs aimed at patrolling soldiers have become increasingly sophisticated and lethal. According to Associated Press, at least 1,841 American troops have died in the war since March, 2003, including 37 since the beginning of August.
At his news conference, Mr. Bush said he strongly disagrees with those calling for troop withdrawal. "Pulling the troops out would send a terrible signal to the enemy ..... [that] the United States is weak and all we've got to do is intimidate and they'll leave."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050812.wxbush0812/BNStory/International/
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.....fucking classicIf anyone one was wondering what happens when Michael Moore pulls his pud, destruction is the result.......
...whata fucking clown you are....This is talking point #2 from the "how to be an imbecile sheep in 3 days" handbook
Translation:
Good points. Now only if I could defend mine...look who shows up at 5 pm on a fridaydone trolling for kids at at the park igloo?
Gonna set up a nice weekend a qaurt of lubriderm and re-runs of Hannity and COlmes all set up on the vcr???
have a lousy weekend fuckface
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yea im paying close to $3.00 and you're saying its oil..
1. Justification for going into Afghanistan:
- a) To have further control of the worlds largest supply of opium. Drugs = money.
To build more oil pipelines in Afghanistan. Which we already have. Oil is what makes the world go round.
c) Build more military bases in the middleeast.
2) Justification for going into Iraq:
- a) Control the worlds 2nd largest oil reserve. To depose of a person who tried to have his father assasinated
c) To have more influence in the middleast.
3) Justification for revoking our civil liberties:
- a) The patriot act. Putting a nation into terror, and justifying the taking away of our liberties.
c) To further bring our country towards a police state.
4) Corporate gain:
- a) To bring money to the defence contracting industry, Which the stocks actually rose right before 9/11. To help his friends in the oil industry.
5) Increase in military spending.
- a) To have further control of the worlds largest supply of opium. Drugs = money.
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if its not terrorism.. then enlighten us and explain why we are there then..
OIL
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healthcare
There you go. The military needs people who are in that profession. Maybe you could work at a military hospital, or a MASH unit. Go for it. Let the military further your career.
wow another edit! you are on a roll!Thankies.
no your clueless this clusterfuck will drag on for yrs on end and with other fronts opening up in iran, syria , lets not forget to kep an eye on korea and the fact athat recruiting is at an alltime low (save the past 2 mos they actaully met their qouta)Your ass will be over there in the sand. Dont worry ill send you a care package and maybe a MEt yearbook for every yr you will be there -
already well into my career.
What career is that?
but if my country ever needed me, id gladly serve. what didnt you get from my last post or should i say "arguement"?:laugh:Read my addendum to my last post.
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yes and if i was drafted i would gladly serve.
Ohhhhhhhh.... So that's what it would take for you to go get your hands dirty? What's your problem with enlisting/volunteering to fight a "noble" cause that you openly support? Too chicken to "gladly" sign up to "gladly" serve?
Go on, bust a move to the recruting office. Put your "John Hancock" on that application. It's ok. I'll honor your services in our armed forces, after all it's a duty for Americans to honor your services, right? I'll honor your services.
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Talking point #3 from the "How to be a Michael Moore sheep in 10 easy lessons"---When you are getting your ass kicked, and of course can't justify any of your clueless positions in a war vs antiwar debate, always level the charge that you can't be pro-war unless you enlist yourself-----and for good measure, always throw a dart about FoxNews".....
Destruction you are a classic blowhard with the IQ ofa vagina wart.........now, either go get professional help, or kill yourself.......I don't care which one you choose, but make teh decision quick social misfit
Please make sure to tell the Dr. abour your little "translation" problem......I think the Doc would find that interesting
Translation:
I don't wanna sign up. I don't wanna go to war. I am a chickenhawk pussy who relishs on supporting wars I don't wanna take action in because I am a lazy fuck with the IQ of Ann Coulter's cling-ons. I am afraid of getting my hands dirty and fear getting ripped apart by a roadside bomb. Well at least my family and friends are out there but it's war, people die, so I'll get over it and be myself. A chickenhawk pussy.Thanks for admitting you're a chickenhawk pussy.
Quick. Dip into the vial. Grab another pill. Must be good stuff. I can tell. Go on, it's ok. Die of an overdose. No problem.
You have been officially owned.
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Please don't litter this thread with your presence.....it is a well written piece and obviously way above your intelligence level.....please stick to your Michael Moore baked nonsense posts......there is plenty of room for us to laugh about you there.
Thank you.
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talking point #4 from the "'how to be a clueless blowhard"......son, go get medical attention or kill yourself.....
Since I am older than you son, address me as your daddy. SON!
please stay off this thread......stay in the little boy roomDon't like it? Close it.
SON!
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destruction.....seriously, go get some professional medical attention....
Translation:
destruction.....you got a point....You know, there are pills for your illness. Consult your shrink for the right prescription for your mental disorder. Like cyanide capsules.
But seriously sheepboy, will you enlist to fight a war you support? Like your family and friends did? Or will you continue to be a chickenhawk pussy and fight it from your recliner, watching Fox News?
Moron.
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Administration supporters insisted Rumsfeld was right to link Iraq and September 11, and hold the rally.
What a fucking joke. I hope it fails miserably.
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Since you are so against this war why don't you send some family members over to fight our troops?
Duh!! Is it because many of the same people who so happen to be against this war have family and friends out there in the shit fighting and dying at the expense of Bush's 12974293874723 lies about this bullshit racist war for his own personal gain?
You're question has as much intellect as a sponge.
God Bless Our Troops !!!!!!!!!!!!God save our troops from BUSH!
Don't know if this will turn out to be authentic, but it is getting some circulation:FAMILY OF FALLEN SOLDIER PLEADS: PLEASE STOP, CINDY!
Thu Aug 11 2005 12:56:21 ET
The family of American soldier Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, has broken its silence and spoken out against his mother Cindy Sheehan's anti-war vigil against George Bush held outside the president's Crawford, Texas ranch.
The following email was received by the DRUDGE REPORT from Casey's aunt and godmother:
Our family has been so distressed by the recent activities of Cindy we are breaking our silence and we have collectively written a statement for release. Feel free to distribute it as you wish. Thanks à Cherie
In response to questions regarding the Cindy Sheehan/Crawford Texas issue: Sheehan Family Statement:
The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.
Sincerely,
Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.
Because it is not their job.I love McDonalds Big Macs...do I make my mother go get a job at McDonalds..
Im not gonna go into about lying and what not..its no point...their is no convincing you liberal retards...was their a little exagerration of WMDs.. sure..
but bottom line is we NEED to be over there.. we NEED to create a potent democracy in Iraq.. once that happens (which wont be a couple of years but many) other arab countries will follow suit and then maybe we can destroy whatever little terrorism will be left...
say whatever you will..disprove my points.. im not gonna waste anymore time..ive already wasted enough breath..
but we are over there and their is NOTHING that you can do about it..
and BUSH is president few more years and there is NOTHING you can do about it..
mmmmmmph, mmmmmmmmmmmph, MMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPHHHHHH!!! (Your mom is talking). She says it's time to rotate the tires underneath the house again.
But seriously... You love war. Will you go to war? Is it your "job"? Would you send your own kids off to war? Is it their "job"? You seem to enjoy it so much so why don't you take action and sign up? Have your kids sign up too. Or are you too much of a bootlicking chickenhawk pussy, like igloo?
And yes. His daughters can go fight. Will Bushie let them? No. Why? Because he rather see someone else's child get killed over his lies over seeing his own air-headed daughters get blown away. For me to believe Bush is telling the truth? Send his own daughters off to war... Or even himself and Laura. There are roughly six or so family members of congressmen who are fighting so that debunks your "it's not their job" CONSERVATIVE gibberish on a club board loser.
Hey, it's war. People die. Get over it, as you gung ho right wing extremists tell us.... until YOUR loved one(s) die on foreign soil then you go into a frenzy when the same rhetorical words are rammed back down your neo-rethuglikkklan throats.
It's war. People die. Get over it, right? Headgiver?
i guess posting liberal gibberish on a club messageboard is your only way to cope with the inevitable.Don't like it? Log off and never come back again. Of course you can always register at conservativeunderground.com then you won't have to read our liberal "gibberish". It's your only way to cope with the "inevitable". Better yet, execute the suicide solution. Yourself.
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More importantly, al-Zawahiri acknowledges the fact that the terrorists have no chance of winning a straight military victory over the U.S.-led Coalition in Iraq. He clearly shows that his only hope of victory lies in the belief that the terrorists could turn American and British public opinion against support for building a new and democratic Iraq. ....something useful idiots like destruction and bxbomb don't understand
Case closed.
The oxy-contin is taking effect on you. Hurry. Head to Rush's medicine cabinet for more before the script runs out.
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Unfortunately, those two imbeciles could never understand that, and others like them as well RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED.
Have another one of Rushie-boy's oxy-contins.
"ONE MIGHT CONCLUDE, from his conduct over the past three years that George W. Bush was put on this earth to do two things: First, to plunge this country into an unjust war . And second, to appease his far right sociopathic christian fundamentalist backers. He's succeeding brilliantly at both."
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
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Sorry I do not pay any mind to people that cannot spell "argument".
fuckin sucker
:laugh:That's only one word. Your grammatical mistakes are many more than that and that goes beyond ARGUMENT, blowboy. Oh, it's "fucking", not "fuckin". Spell it right next time trollblower.
BTW, it's nookoolar, not NUCLEAR.
/sarcasmFucking uneducated Nazi.
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hey retard keep reaching..
and its "argument" - how fuckin stupid can you be??
:laugh:funny..i just type as i think while you spend time conjuring up a response and yet i have less spelling errors than you..
maybe you should first learn how to write before trying to criticize our great freedom loving nation..
its people like you that fade away after awhile..
4 more years bitch! ha ha sucker
Translation:
Your defininton of fascist is accurate. I admittingly fail to defend my argument in definition of the word to debunk your accurately described defining of this word. With that being said, I am only inclined to attack the adversary of mine (you) childishly, since my maturity level does not exceed that of an 11 year old instead of trying as best as I can to counter-define what you accurately described. My immaturity makes me incapable. Your point has been validated. I resign.Secondly. Read my entire post in question where you made the assumptions of my mispelling. Display the words in question and display them. My spellchecker is waiting.
Thirdly. Criticism is a free speech right. Ever hear of it? This is the way it is in this freedom loving country. You want to live in a nation where criticism of government is outlawed? MOVE TO NORTH KOREA!
Fourthly. I repeat. Capitalize the first letter in the first word in a sentence. One period at the end of a sentence. Not two. Again, you fail to use proper grammar, but then again conservatives have a tendency to fail in the proper grammar and phonetic department.
Don't even waste your time with this social misfit...he is just another blowhard who will fade away into nothingness, just as you said.....history has always shown these morons are nothing but background noise.......There's the 15th characteristic of fascism, in the flesh. Wow... Good to see you made it mongoloid.
Seriously son, shut the fuck up. Your "background noise" is nothing but a waste of bandwidth sheepboy. Stop posting and log off permanently. Call your ISP and cancel your service and sell your computer then kill yourself. Much valuable bandwidth will be saved by your non-existance.
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kinda reaching here. it was an obvious typo.
dont blame you though..you're whole argument/ existance on this board has been pretty weak.
Apparently, your grammar is much weaker. Do they teach grammar in Republican school?
1. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence.
2. It's arguement/existance. NOT arguement/ existance.
3. Periods appear at the end of a sentence. Not before the sentence. Use proper punctuation when forming sentences.
If I'm "reaching", then explain where I am weak in the definition of fascism. If you're implying I am wrong, then what is the definition?
Im glad you know how to use a dictionary took you a coupleWould your extremist bed buddy siceone's "arguement/existance" be weak too since he has already confirmed my answer to him?
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Something else for you siceone...
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt
Spring 2003
Free Inquiry magazine
Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.
The 14 characteristics are:
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only.
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm
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I can already see right wing extremists getting ready to trash this poor woman.you guys have no comprehension of the word honor..... seriously sad. Nor does that sad woman.
Homer, is this one of the right wing extremists you were talking about?
To build more oil pipelines in Afghanistan. Which we already have. Oil is what makes the world go round.
"Mr. President. You have daughters. How would you feel if one of them was killed?"
in Useless Blabber
Posted