He’s the freakin’ President of the United States, lady. And besides, you already met with him once before.
Jesus. Thank Patton grieving parents and spouses of WWII soldiers killed in battle weren’t subjected to the kind of crass exploitation by anti-war opportunists Cindy Sheehan is being exposed to; the thought of some seersucker-suited aide wheeling Roosevelt door-to-door across America, hat in hand, so that he could answer to the wives and parents of 400,000 dead soldiers—the majority of whom were drafted …well, that’s just too ridiculous and depressing even to contemplate.
Listen → I feel for this woman, I honestly do. But somebody close to her needs to take her aside and convince her that it’s time to grieve in private and to honor her son’s memory. Instead, this poor grieving woman is taking solace—solace I believe she’ll later come to regret—from the worst type of hyperpartisan frauds, professional Bush-bashers and wannabe-Vietnam-era protestors whose hatred for the President and his foreign policy runs so deep that they’re willing to adopt Ms. Sheehan like some sort of morbid mascot of convenience and exploit her pain—and her son’s death—in the most cynical and public way imaginable.
The whole business makes me sick.
There. I said it.
****
Follow the story here. Me, I’m done with it.
thanks for saying something. this has been bothering me the last few days. (there was some big anti-war gathering here in dallas this weekend, one of the featured speakers was a soldier that had spent time in prison for refusing to go with his unit, anyhoo, this tied in somehow) but having a husband that’s in the military, (and i realize they don’t all think alike) i can’t help but wonder how her son would feel about her behavior. i know it would really sadden my husband if i acted the same way. it makes me angry.
Thanks for your anger mixed with empathy. Her pain is something I avoided commenting on since learning of hypocrisy, yet her prior words reverberate.
And, I believe that the proverbial “long run” the most important. I trust she will eventually recognize that she is in a stage of anger. And, that others are using her to place her on another, more crass, stage that she will regret being in the front of.
Or not, because losing my son is more than I can imagine to imagine.
Jefe,
I apprecieate your desire to show respect to a dead soldier’s mother, but it’s at least possible that she wasn’t manipulated by anyone, and that she’s responsible for her own hypocrisy. It’s possible that once the tears and sympathy ran out for her over her sons death, she missed the attention and this is her way of getting back into the spotlight. Just saying.
f
By stopping here, I think you show fantastic judgement. I wish I could say I have done the same in the past.
Good for you Jeff for covering this story. Most of the other large blogs have been strangely silent on this, and it needs to be pointed out.
However, now that the story is out, I’d look for the anti-war folks to drop her like a hot potato and move on to someone else. She has lost her effectiveness for their purposes.
Isn’t this the thing involving the lady who has now completely changed her story re: her meeting with the president ?
Maybe I’m just a cold hearted bastard but lying your ass off to make a “political statement” is wrong no matter what you experienced.
Other parents lose their children and celebrate their children’s life and their service to our country. This lady simply is lashing out (and I have no doubt she’s been put up to it- you think Soros wouldn’t offer somebody like this 50 grand if it would get press coverage).
In the words of my grandfather, a WWII vet who was a POW: Don’t be a pussy.
This whole episode reminds me of the Munchausen’s-by-proxy people (usually women) who victimize their own children in order to draw attention to themselves.
The NYTimes “editorial” on this topic today really takes the cake–there is nothing about her earlier account of the first meeting with Bush and the suggestion that she speaks for most Americans. They will use anyone to further their agenda–adopted children, grieving mothers. Pathetic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/opinion/09tue1.html?th&emc=th
The same crowd that imagines for itself a “right” to pictures of flag-draped coffins of dead soldiers. Inasmuch as these soldiers never signed a release form saying “yes, please use photographs of my remains for anti-war propaganda created by people who hate me, are glad I am dead, and oppose the mission I though important enough to give my life for in the hope that such pictures can bring us to a repeat of 1975,” I don’t think anyone has a legitimate claim to such usage.
I listened to her being interviewed on talk radio last night. She lost me when she said that at the meeting the family had with Bush last year, she said that Bush gave her daughter a “dirty look” after saying that the loss must have left a hole in her heart and the daughter responded with “we wish he was still here.”
That was extremely poor sentence structure. I’m banning myself.
The poor woman is having a hard time and I can’t say I blame her. She needs someone to help her work out her grief.
As far as the fifth-column media is concerned, considerations of truth and accuracy never affect them–except as it applies to their own ox. Her worth in propaganda is priceless. Like drops of water wearing down a stone, every little bit helps. Given enough time, they can undermine the entire military edifice and create another Vietnam-style loss.
I think Cindy Sheehan is an arrogant, self-centered twit willing to piss on her son’s patriotic service and risk the freedom of 25 million Iraqis and the lives of hundreds of thousands of servicemen in her twisted attempt to blame Bush for her son’s death.
Rabind animals don’t mean to be rabid, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous to others.
Her family, who doesn’t seem to back her on this (unless you guys have seen otherwise) really need to step in and get her some therapy, and get her out of the public eye.
She is a threatening our servicemen by giving the enemy hope. I cannot think her son would stand for his mother threatening the lives of his fellow soldiers.
This lady reminds me of Michael Berg.
CY –
I’m sure in her own mind she thinks she’s doing the right thing but you have to remember she’s a grieving parent. I agree she is wrong but she needs help not condemnation.
RG,
She reminds me of Winifred Skinner.
Seven days a week she picks up cans to pay for her perscription drugs, SEVEN DAYS!! These people are the only ones who suffer when they are brought back down to earth.
Fair enough, ICall.
What makes her so crass in my mind is the fact her son was killed over a year ago.
dario!!!! Winifred Skinner? What a BLAST FROM THE PAST! My cousin used to drive for a company that was located on her can collection route, and he said she was a real ungrateful bitch. She was always complaining to everyone within earshot how they should put the cans in bags for her & rinse them before throwing them away to save her the work. She’s living in a nursing home in the town where I live now, and I’m sure she’s still the same wonderful ball of sunshine she’s always been.
The worst part of the story is that her son is upper middle class, and has repeatedly offered to pay her expenses, but she refuses to take money from him. I guess it’s hard to get up on your cross & drive the nails into your own hands when you’re carrying a bundle of cash your son just gave you.
TW – “doubt”, as in “I doubt if I’ll EVER hear another pop culture reference to Winifred Skinner if I live to be 100”.
fwiw –
Democratic Presidents are ‘O-for-World Wars’ in terms of attending funerals of soldiers killed in combat.
LBJ went 2-for-56,000+, one funeral involved a general, the other the son of a member of the press with whom LBJ had a personal relationship.
Very well said, Jeff. (I just linked up to this at the blog but the trackback thingie didn’t work.) Was just about to compose my response when I read yours and figured that I couldn’t add anymore to it than that.
Parallel event: Yesterday, my wife is making the visiting rounds with eldest son, who is home on leave from Afghanistan (173rd Abn, Kandahar). They make the mistake of going to visit my mother, who has a full-blown case of Bush Derangement Syndrome. After about a half-hour tirade, son tells grandmother ‘I really don’t need any of this’ and has to leave.
What a jolly ol’ time.
Ed in TX: That’s f’n sad. I’m not going to “go there” with your mama, but DAMN.
Cindy Sheewho? She is dead to me. I’m not writing shit about her BDS BS, because I want her to fade back into oblivion.
If my mother used my honorable death as a tool to bash my decision to enlist and bash everything I stood for, I’d come back and haunt her until she ended up in the loony bin, where she’d belong. And it looks like that’s where Casey Sheehan’s mother is headed, at the rate she’s going.
Turing: wall, as in Vietnam Memorial wall–since Casey’s mother seems to never have recovered from Vietnam-era Derangement Syndrome.
Good one Jeff! This makes me sick as well. No winners here. I feel so sorry for her and hope she finds peace, but she’s harming the country.
She needs to go home now! …Bless her heart! I hope someone close to her will tell her…I am strting to think she needs to take some medication…I have never been to your blog before Vodkapundit is how I found you via WILLisms.com!! I like how you think. Thanks for having me! Bye for now…
As a Marine in the fray… I appreciate all the genuine comments on this blog. Ms. Sheehan is a disgrace to all that are here in the Middle East fighting for what is right. I have included a letter I tried to send to Margaret Carlson, but true to form it was somehow blocked by the “this -makes-too-much-sense” filter at Bloomberg.
Keep up the good work!
JP Crook USMC
Cindy Sheehan Just Wants to See Her President: Margaret Carlson
Aug. 10 (Bloomberg)—I didn’t think Cindy Sheehan, the mother waiting on that dusty Texas road for a chance to ask President George W. Bush why her son died in Iraq, was having much impact.
Dear Ms. Carlson,
In reference to your recent column for Bloomberg; Why don’t you spend a few months in Iraq as I have and rub shoulders with the people who have been butchered by a brutal dictator that harbored terrorists and used WMD on his own people… think about all the widows in Iraq, all the children with father’s beheaded by terrorists, all the women that were murdered just because they were women, and the women still living that now have a chance at a voice in a new democratic government. What have we done in Iraq?? We have given people hope. And when they have hope.. they begin to dream.. and dreams become reality.
People are finally free in Iraq. And a free Iraq means a safer America because those that wish to oppress can no longer spread their poison into the minds of potential terrorists. Democracy is spreading in the Middle East and it is scaring the hell out of those that have opposed it for hundreds of years, because that means that the funding for their corrupt clerics and their terrorist friends will finally dry up.
You need to expand your mind and come to grips with the reality that there are people out there who want to kill you and every other American they can get their hands on. Whether you believe it or not, it is reality.
What is the price of freedom? It is the blood of men and women better than people like yourself who sit in your columnistic palaces and puff out your nonsense with no clue about the way things really are. I have attached a picture of the hope of Iraq… just for you. Now doesn’t the plight of poor little sunburned Cindy Sheehan pale in comparison to the destitute Iraqi widow and her young daughter struggling to survive in a land scorched by the sun and brutalized by terrorists who don’t give a damn about women’s rights?? Wake up and get out and do something useful before you find an airplane flying into your “climate-controlled” office building. Ever been shot at???? Ever seen evil?? Ever known what it means to make a personal sacrifice??? Spare us the dribble and do something productive like find an alternate source of oil so we can stop the American dependence on foreign energy. Stop whining and start contributing so we can get the job done faster and bring our troops home for good. If we don’t stop it now, we’ll be right back over here in another five years. You can bet your winter heating oil on it.
Along a much hotter and dustier road in the Middle East
semper fi,
John P. Crook
Colonel USMC
p.s. I’m sure you are driving a gasoline-using–foreign-oil-consuming-climate-controlled vehicle yourself…. are you not???
I totally agree with you about Cindy Sheehan. Her son go down in history in the hearts and minds of conservative Americans (like myself) as a hero who VOLUNARILY fought and died for his country. The left will forget his name in less time than it takes the Bush haters to find another poster child for their agenda. She’ll live to regret this, and for that, I feel even sorry for her because the people who are using her now are the same ones who opposed the war, crying, “No blood for oil!” I’m paying $2.50 for gasoline where I live so it would appear they’re not fighting for oil, but might actually be fighting for something important and I believe her son knew that all along or he wouldn’t have joined!
P.S. Sorry for the typos. Don’t type when you’re angry.
I am sorry for Casey Sheehan’s loss. The loss of his mother. For no mother could ever use her child’s death as a political tool to further her own agenda. You see, Casey supported the war on terror. He signed up for the Army, not once, but twice. He willingly fought for his country. But now his mother fights against all Casey believed in. She insults his memory and even his death by making him a tool of her far left agenda.
Cindy Sheehan is no hero and no anti-war protester. Where was she when Clinton bombed Kosovo or Bosnia? Did she camp out then? No, she towed the Far Left Wing Line. You see, Cindy Sheehan doesn’t hate war, she Hates George Bush. Her actions prove she Hates Bush more than she loved Casey.
Here are quotes from Cindy:
“My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. “
“We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy…not for the real reason, becuase the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign policy.”
“You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism.”
And there you have her real agenda. She is Anti-Bush, Anti-Jew and wants to give in to terrorists, because George Bush is President. She would rather trash America than support the memory of her son Casey who fought for and believed in America’s Freedoms.
Two months after Casey’s death, President Bush met with Casey’s family. At that time Cindy Sheehan said “”I now know President Bush is sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he’s sorry and feels pain for our loss.”
Now that Cindy is being bankrolled by the like of Michael Moore, George Soros & Sam Huseini she says other things. It appears she has allowed herself to be bought out by the far left she loves and they like it because we aren’t supposed to be able to argue against a “grieving” mother. But when Cindy turned her grieving into politics, she lost all respect due her. She is using the death of Casey for her own political agenda and that is not right. In fact it is so wrong, the rest of Casey’s family..those who love and cherish his memory issued a statement on August 11th.
I share it with you now. From the loving family of Casey Sheehan:
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 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.
Hmm, Let’s analyze some of these brilliant comments here. To be against Israel’s policies of occupation is to be anti-Jew. To be against The United States occupation of Iraq is to be anti-bush. Using the death of one lady’s son for a moral stance is wrong but Using the death of thousands of Americans on 9/11 as a pretext for agression is justified? For people who despise Karl Marx conservatives certain enjoy employing his jargon to curtail the real issue.
Israel’s “policies of occupation” begs the question—and yes, calling for an end to the Israeli state is being anti-Jew. Calling George Bush a bastard and accusing him of acting like he was at a party when he met with Ms Sheehan is to be anti-Bush. The death of every son in war is a moral tragedy. Politicizing it and using it to affect policy changes that will lead to disaster—a pullout from Iraq, is what’s she’s advocating, a position even Wes Clark finds untenable and unconcscionable—and the death of 3000 mostly civilians on 911 was hardly a pretext. It was a reason for aggessively protecting ourselves and our interests.
So take the faux “irony” elsewhere.
KIA 1848
WMD 0
Any questions?
Yeah. Have you read the resolution passed by Congress (bipartisan) authorizing the President to go to war?
If not, go for it. It’s an eye opener.
Granted, you can’t fit it on a bumper sticker, so it might be a bit above your pay grade…
Waco 80 (2 full term pregnant women)
any questions?
Exactly!
There seems to be a epidemic of these pathetic mothers in the news lately. Mary Schindler and Beth Twitty instantly come to mind. These people use their children’s tragedies as excuses to develop personal relationships with goverment official and media stars.
These people will be the downfall of America unless someone stops them.