Front Line Comes to Crawford, Texas

Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Sadr City over a year ago, is not content to fume at home at Bush's insistence that Americans killed in combat died in a noble cause. Here is her own description of how she, along with Gold Star Families for Peace, the group she co-founded, and others have brought the front line against the war to the outskirts of Bush's ranch while he vacations in Crawford, Texas. I'm not going to excerpt it because I really think it deserves to be read in full.

Contrast that with CNN's report on the vigil. In fairness, CNN is one of the first big media outlets in the U.S. to report on the matter, and the totality of their report has been fair to Ms. Sheehan. I could not help but notice though, that the first quote which they chose to use, "I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?" wasn't quite accurate, and would likely cause supporters of our policy in Iraq to quit reading, and dismiss this woman incorrectly as simply an angry mother who oversimplifies cause and effect. If you listen to the entire interview (via Crooks and Liars) which she did with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, you can see that she is indeed angry, and does hold Bush accountable for her son's death, both with good reason, but there is far more depth there than those few words betray. The more eloquent quote would have been "I don't want [the President] to use my noble, honorable son to justify his murderous policies in Iraq."

More telling to the general public though, was her description of her earlier meeting with Bush, and his behavior in that meeting, described briefly in CNN's report and more fully in the video. Sheehan clearly describes his inability to grasp the gravity of what it means to lose a child in any conflict, much less one which one doesn't support. Those of us who cannot abide this President are awed that his extreme selfishness is not readily apparent to any casual observer. Where did the myth that he's the sort of fellow that regular guys would like to hang out with come from?

You can support Cindy and others supporting her such as Sharon with positive encouragement via their diaries on Daily Kos.