Traitor Mom
August 16, 2005
By Douglas B. Wakeman
Cindy Sheehan is just another hate-America scumbag determined to undermine the ability of modern western civilization to defend itself from barbarian savages. If anyone does not believe that Leftism is based on nihilism and self-hate, just watch her shit all over the corpse of her hero son in pursuit of her demented goals. Why does she do it? She hates him because he defended America.
One year from now, nobody will remember this idiot woman’s name except those living in their bizarro world of the Left, where Valerie Plame and the Downing Street Memo (not to mention the stolen elections, Richard Clarke and PNAC) are still silver bullet scandals waiting to be fired. The reason this will fade quickly with the summer heat is simply that this lady is dishonest and insincere. She’s like some loathsome, lumbering beast heading to a party of vampires dragging the body of her son behind her as some gruesome hors d'oeuvre for the slavering hordes.
Here are two columns; one with the plain truth and one written from inside the hate-America cocoon. Note the perspective of the piece by the Salon editor, Joan Walsh. It’s like reading some alien communiqué from another planet. The assertions she makes and the conclusions she draws are all totally nuts. Note and ponder this sentence, “And yet, even as Sheehan's public relations victories give people reason to be optimistic about the administration's unraveling in Iraq, liberals and war opponents have to be careful not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
This sick bitch pines for America’s defeat in Iraq!
First, some comments that I have collected from the treasonous, poisonous utterances of the nasty bitch, Cindy Sheehan. Note the obligatory “American imperialism” in quote #8 and blood libel on Israel in quote #10:
1. ”somebody's gotta stop those lying bastards”
2. “Then we have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a 5-week vacation in a time of war”
3. “I'm either gonna be in jail or in a tent in Crawford, waiting until that jerk comes out and tells me why my son died.”
4. “he doesn't care, he doesn't have a heart.”
5. ”that filth-spewer and warmonger, George Bush”
6. “And I'm gonna tell them, ‘You get that evil maniac out here, cuz a Gold Star Mother, somebody who's blood is on his hands, has some questions for him.’"
7. “And I'm gonna say, ‘And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for.’ And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy' I'm gonna say, bullshit.”
8. “You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.”
9. ”Cuz, we're not freer. You're taking away our freedoms. The Iraqi people aren't freer, they're much worse off than before you meddled in their country. “
10. ”You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism”
11. “What can we do to get him out of power? And I'm gonna say the I' word. Impeach. And we have to have everybody impeached that lied to the American public, and that's the executive branch, and any people in congress, and we gotta go all the way down and we might have to go all the way down to the person who picks up the dogshit in Washington because we can't let somebody rise to the top who will pardon these war criminals. Because they need to go to prison for what they've done in this world. We can't have a pardon. They need to pay for what they've done.”
12. “was supposed to go to England tomorrow to do some Downing Street things, but Conyers cancelled”
13. “These maniacs have no authority over us”
14. “Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn't know anything, and we would already be a fascist state."
15. "Our government is run by one party, every level," Sheehan continued, "and the mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government." Sheehan also called the 2004 presidential election "the election, quote-unquote, that happened in November."
16. “America has been killing people . . . since we first stepped on this continent, we have been responsible for death and destruction.”
17. "This country is not worth dying for."
18. “We might not even have been attacked by Osama bin Laden”
20. “I would never have let him go and try and defend this morally repugnant system we have.”
21. “We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now”
22. “As soft-spoken and sincere-sounding as Paul Wolfowitz is, is there yet any sane adult in this country whose skin does not crawl when this murderous liar opens his mouth and speaks?”
23. Here, in response to a question, she refers to the terrorist enemy in Iraq as "Freedom fighters" -
You know that the president says Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism, don't you believe that?" asked Mark Knoller of CBS, surrounded by a host of other reporters.
"No, because it's not true," Sheehan replied. "You know Iraq was no threat to the United States of America until we invaded. I mean they're not even a threat to the United States of America. Iraq was not involved in 9-11, Iraq was not a terrorist state. But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and they [American troops] have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country. The terrorism is growing and people who never thought of being car bombers or suicide bombers are now doing it because they want the United States of America out of their country."
|
Poster Child for Surrender |
By
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
Washington
Times | August 16, 2005
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of a fallen soldier, Casey Sheehan, a man who volunteered to serve his country and gave his life so that people in Iraq might have a government that did not threaten them, and us. As such, she is entitled to our sympathy and gratitude.
Unfortunately, she has lately become something else: the poster child for surrender. With her decision to camp out near President Bush's home in Crawford, Texas, to demand immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Ms. Sheehan has morphed into a pawn in the hands of partisans who are indifferent whether the United States is defeated on the central front in this global war -- as long as Mr. Bush, his administration and party are laid low.
The media circus that has surrounded and amplified all of Ms. Sheehan's increasingly strident rhetorical outbursts (she says she won't pay taxes until she gets her son back and wants the president impeached for war crimes) may, by so doing, have filled a void in their August doldrums programming. Their 24 hour per day, seven days a week coverage of Casey Sheehan's mom has done something else, however: Together with polls showing flagging support for the president, it has further encouraged the conviction of our Islamofascist enemies that, as they expected, an indolent and self-indulgent United States cannot stand up to determined, ruthless foes.
That perception can have but one effect: It puts an even bigger premium on the lives of every one of Casey's comrades in Iraq and elsewhere, and to foreclose the outcomes for which he and the other fallen gave their lives. Even before his mom became a spectacle, the Islamists hoped -- as in Beirut in 1983 and Somalia in 1994 -- killing enough American troops would make the rest withdraw ignominiously. Handing the U.S. such defeats enhances the claims to leadership and power of those responsible for driving them out, effectively eliminating alternatives that may have been more sympathetic to Western values and interests.
A test case is under way at this writing. Israel is forcibly removing settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank that will be turned over to Palestinian control. Already, the Islamofascists of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and factions of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement are claiming their terrorism forced the Israelis to "disengage."
The perpetrators of such terror are sure to dominate the emerging Palestinian state, even while insisting they will continue their violent intifada until achieving "occupation" of the rest of "Palestine" by Israel's complete destruction.
Does anyone really believe that, having rewarded the terrorists, Israel will see less terror against Israel in the future? Common sense tells us that, as the Palestinians obtain billions in financing from the West, arms (at U.S. insistence) from Israel, unimpeded and unmonitored use of a seaport, airport and land border with Egypt, the ability of Israel's enemies to increase the number and lethality of attacks on the Jewish State from behind internationally recognized boundaries will only grow.
It is inconceivable we would fare better if the United States and its coalition partners in Iraq yielded to the demands of the Surrender-Now crowd. Iraq would become at best a new safe-haven for terrorism against the West, at worst, a renewed state-sponsor of such terror. The promise of an Iraqi partner in this war would be squandered, the best hope of encouraging emergence in the Mideast of moderate, peaceable and prosperous states foreclosed, America's enemies emboldened and her friends forced to reconsider their allegiance to us.
Worst, at least from the perspective of their loved ones, the sacrifice made by people like Casey Sheehan would be for naught. Yet his mom insists, "You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism."
Ms. Sheehan is entitled to her pain and anger. She is, of course, entitled to express them appropriately, as well. But her loss of a son does not give her particular standing with respect to analyzing the nature of this conflict or the consequences of abandoning the fight.
The foes who wield terror against us are not animated by grievances, real or perceived, as much by a totalitarian political ideology. Its stated goal is a global caliphate under a Taliban-like religious code. Withdrawal under fire -- surrender by any other name -- will not "stop the terror." It will ensure there is more of it here, en route to subjecting the U.S. and every other nation to the Islamofascists' dominance and Shari'a.
One hundred and forty-three years ago next month, the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought at Antietam, Md. From the perspective of the more than 20,000 mothers who lost their sons that day, their sacrifice must have been no less wrenching or hard to justify than was Ms. Sheehan's. Had Abraham Lincoln given up at that point, the nation would have been divided, slavery perpetuated and prospects for freedom in the world darkened. Now, as then, we must stay the course.
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is the founder, president, and CEO of The Center for Security Policy. During the Reagan administration, Gaffney was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy, and a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Senator John Tower (R-Texas). He is a columnist for The Washington Times, Jewish World Review, and Townhall.com and has also contributed to The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, and Newsday.
The
Mother of all Battles
Cindy Sheehan has almost single-handedly
launched an American antiwar movement. And in the process, she's exposed a
president's feet of clay.
by Joan Walsh
The smearing may continue, but it's already too late: Cindy Sheehan has launched an American antiwar movement. Maybe, as Matt Drudge blared over the weekend, she's said controversial things about Israel. Maybe the IRS will chase her for tax evasion, since she's reportedly announced that she won't pay taxes for 2004, the year her son Casey died in Iraq. Maybe her family has been shaken by her activism. Maybe the smears will even work, and cost Sheehan some of her mainstream political credibility. It doesn't matter: Someone else will take her place.
Sheehan's central demand -- that the president meet with her and explain why her son died -- has immense power in a country that's beginning to understand it was lied to about the reasons for the Iraq war, at a time when the carnage seems not only endless but futile. To build on that power, the antiwar movement being born at Camp Casey must understand and hold onto the source of Sheehan's moral authority: her authentic grief over her son's death and her fearless demand to talk honestly about it, even with supporters of the war.
Bush backers are clearly spooked by Sheehan, and they're shifting their stories as fast as they can get away with it. Early last week, you'll remember, she was a naive flip-flopper who supposedly changed her mind about the war and President Bush, because she'd had some mild words of praise for the president after they met last June. That line of attack didn't work, so this week she's a hardened left-wing agitator, plotting alongside the likes of Michael Moore, Medea Benjamin and Viggo Mortensen to help America's enemies. Need some proof? She's got Fenton Communications doing her media, for God's sake!
There's actually a tiny shard of truth in the latest right-wing attack on Sheehan, but it serves to underscore how dangerous she is to their cause. Sheehan has in fact been active in opposing the war since just after Casey died -- she starred in anti-Bush ads last year. (She was the lead in Michelle Goldberg's Salon feature on the ads last September.) Almost a year later, Sheehan has managed to break through to the American public, in a way that she obviously didn't in the Real Voices ads. But it's not because of the help of Code Pink and Fenton (which joined her after she was already in Crawford, by the way). It's because Americans are souring on the war and ready to hear what she has to say.
After more than two years of denial, the war is coming home to the American people. It's a journalistic cliché to talk about what you learned on summer vacation, but indulge me: With mostly network news and USA Today to provide my news-junkie fix, I learned this August that the war is finally a mainstream news story. I'm just old enough to remember grim footage from Vietnam on the nightly news, and it's starting to look familiar -- maps of the latest attacks, the dead and wounded soldiers, the grieving families and, now, Cindy Sheehan and antiwar protesters. If there's anybody still eating dinner watching the "CBS Evening News," now with Bob Schieffer and not Walter Cronkite, it's unsettling suppertime fare.
But the news is following public opinion, not leading it. The percentage of people who support the president's handling of the war has been sinking, as the number of casualties, and the apparent power of the insurgency, continue to rise. The other thing that's starting to break through is the president's cluelessness and callousness, his tin ear when it comes to the war and to Cindy Sheehan's appeal. Bush is such a polarizing force in American politics that it's hard to objectively describe either his personal political assets or his flaws. Most of his opponents can't even imagine his appeal to his supporters -- the regular Texan, the man's man, the guy you'd prefer to have a beer with over John Kerry -- and of course his admirers can't see what enrages his detractors, the smirking shiftless bully behind the regular-guy veneer.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it felt to me as if with Bush's latest remarks about Sheehan over the weekend, the clownish lightweight his critics know and despise was beginning to shine through for all to see. If you haven't already, take a moment to ponder what he told Cox News about why he could find time for a bike ride on Saturday but not to meet with Sheehan:
"I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."
You don't have to be Cindy Sheehan to think that yammering on about "staying healthy" and living a "balanced life" while so many are suffering and dying in Iraq is unthinkably cruel, as well as unbelievably politically tone deaf. When I read Bush's quote -- I read it over and over -- I found myself wondering not just about his character but about his fundamental emotional health. It's as if he's confessing he couldn't stay "balanced" if he had to confront Sheehan's grief, and even worse, her questions about why her son died.
And yet, even as Sheehan's public relations victories give people reason to be optimistic about the administration's unraveling in Iraq, liberals and war opponents have to be careful not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's important to understand why Sheehan matters, and how she's gained traction on the war. Yes, it's the uptick in violence in Iraq, and the decided downturn in optimism, even among war supporters, who are continually defining success downward. Sunday's Washington Post had a great account of how the war architects are ready to declare victory -- not a Democratic Iraq but "some form of Islamic republic" -- and get out of Vietnam, I mean, Iraq. And yes, it's also true that August is a slow news month, giving Sheehan more room to tell her story. (I'd add that karma required that the president's stubborn monthlong vacation in Texas -- whether it's after he got a warning about terrorists using airplanes as weapons in 2001, on the eve of 9/11, or during one of the bloodiest months yet in Iraq -- would come back to bite him.)
But mainly it's the sincerity and humanity of Sheehan's core message. The anecdotes coming out of Camp Casey tell the story: Sheehan's quiet discussion with a soldier who opposes her views, which ended in a hug. Another Camp Casey activist had a respectful talk with a trucker who supports the war but stopped by to see if his dead son was listed among the casualties there. (He was, and the visit reportedly ended with him declaring his love for Sheehan.) Against the backdrop of an administration that refuses to acknowledge the dead, that prohibits photos of coffins and flies the wounded home under cover of darkness, that lets the president vacation and "stay healthy" instead of talking to the mother of a dead veteran, Sheehan and Camp Casey can get attention and win converts just by bearing witness to the violence and despair of a war whose goal nobody really understands anymore, in which victory seems less and less likely.
To build on her success it's important that organizers understand her appeal. Sheehan doesn't have all the answers -- she's smart enough to know she doesn't need to provide them. By simply asking why her son died, she's starting a dialogue about a war in which we've been lied to from the outset.
Moving forward and coming up with a broader message that can unify an antiwar movement will be tougher. Even war opponents aren't sure whether the message should be "Out now," or "Out soon," or "A lot of us out now and the rest asap." But if the goal is to build a big-tent antiwar movement, the messages must be simple, inclusive and from the heart.
The right will continue to use Sheehan's more controversial statements against her, of course. And it could, conceivably, hurt her appeal with the American people -- especially if antiwar allies choose to play up those positions. While I think there's plenty of room to blame the pro-Israel Project for a New American Century for helping lead us to war on false pretenses, as Sheehan does, let's remember that we won't end the war by requiring a litmus test on Israel and Palestine. Too often antiwar organizers have driven away supporters by leading with their most divisive views -- and by failing to communicate with those who hold different views.
Sheehan is outspoken -- and like all Americans, she has the right to be outspoken -- but she hasn't made that mistake. Camp Casey has become an outpost of grief and dialogue, and that's what gives it worldwide recruiting power. In Kentucky, the Republican grandmother of Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Johnson Comley, killed in Amiriyah, Iraq, earlier this month, told local media she wished she could join Sheehan in Crawford because she's "on a rampage" against Bush and the war. "When someone gets up and says, 'My son died for our freedom,' or I get a sympathy card that says that, I can hardly bear it," 80-year-old Geraldine Comley told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "And it irritates me no small amount that Dick Cheney, in the Vietnam War, said he had 'other priorities.' He didn't mind sending my grandson over there" to Iraq.
Michael Moore couldn't have put it any more harshly. Smart organizers will make sure the Geraldine Comleys of the world are always welcome at Camp Casey. Because, sadly, their ranks are growing by the day.
Joan Walsh is Salon's editor in chief.
© 2005 Salon.com
Added - August 18, 2005 - Ann Coulter