On Cindy Sheehan
I've been trying for several days now to figure out what to say about Cindy Sheehan. And then tonight I discovered that Rick Heller at Centerfield had done it for me. His post says just about all that needs to be said, I think. Like him, I can't agree with Ms. Sheehan's call for an immediate pullout from Iraq - as I said earlier today, that just opens us and the Iraqi people up to even more serious problems. At the same time, the president might benefit from a discussion with her ... I can't see any harm in holding a meeting.
posted by JBD @ 10:13 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I can't agree with Ms. Sheehan's call for an immediate pullout from Iraq - as I said earlier today, that just opens us and the Iraqi people up to even more serious problems
I'd answer that quote with this one from Norman Solomon
While Bush sees the war as a problem and Dean bemoans it as a stalemate, Sheehan refuses to evade the truth that it is a crime. And the analysis that came from Daniel Ellsberg in 1972, while the Vietnam War continued, offers vital clarity today: "Each of these perspectives called for a different mode of personal commitment: a problem, to help solve it; a stalemate, to help extricate ourselves with grace; a crime, to expose and resist it, to try to stop it immediately, to seek moral and political change."
OK, that's rights & wrongs, not pragmatics. On pragmatics I'm by no means sure whether stability should be a precondition for US withdrawal or whether US withdrawal is a precondition for stability. I suspect the latter, but since I'm not sure I'll stick with rights and wrongs.
Cindy is a grieving mother, not a traitor!
Bush did not meet with her because he has real problems dealing with dissent. That is partly why she is kept 4 miles away and why dissenters during the campaign were relegated to distant "free speech zones." The latter were clear violations of First Amendment rights, something that should concern us all.
If we leave Iraq now or a year from now, the problems will be about the same.
Her presence there might force Bush to redefine our goals there.
We will have to make some real sacrifices if we are permitted to withdraw most troops while keeping troops and bases near vival pipelines.
The military ejection of the mayor of Baghdad last week and the de facto rise of an Islamic republic should put the cork on talk of a democracy there.
Cindy Sheehan is a mother, above all else, who lost her son. Her family has been ripped to shreds, and in learning of all the evidence there is stacked against Bush and the administration, she wants answers, just answers. She isn't seeking office or political gain. She wants answers, and if she can prevent even one more death, she knows her cause will have meant something. I'm tired of hearing TV pundits slam her and rip her apart. She's not a politican, she's a mother who lost her son, and it's ruined her life understandably. Bush won't meet with her, will barely make mention of her, and has made obvious decisions that have made this quite clear. It's a sign, and a symbol of his lack of character and compassion and his inability to face the consequences of the decisions he has made. The war is unpopular, it is not going well. The administration continues to lower the bar on the goals, make unmatching statements about what they are doing and what will happen. The American public has increasingly shown that they want answers, they want to be told the truth, and they want their president to level with them, and he has refused to do so. Soldiers are being killed in increasing numbers, their injuries aren't reported at all, and according to the administration, "we don't do body counts" so there is no adequate record of how many deaths or injuries there are among the civilian population in Iraq. To quote Jon Stewart "The President's record doesn't match his record."
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