Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside the President's ranch has galvanised the anti-war movement - and provoked a vicious political slanging match. Paul Harris reports: Candles were lit all across America last week in one of the largest single anti-war protests in recent US history. At more than 1,600 vigils tens of thousands of protesters gathered in solidarity with the woman who has been the catalyst for the rebirth of the anti-war movement: Cindy Sheehan.
Her remarkable one-woman stand outside George Bush's Texas ranch has turned into a national phenomenon - and one of the most vicious political slanging matches in recent US history.
On the pro-war side, Sheehan has been derided as a traitor to America, betraying her dead soldier son's memory. On the anti-war side she has become a secular saint, laden with the powerful imagery of the avenging mother roused to action. For them, she is the lone soccer mom who is taking on Bush - and winning. Either way, Sheehan is the most talked-about woman in American politics. She might also be Bush's worst public relations nightmare. For months Washington has been awash in speculation of a 'tipping point', when the majority of American public opinion turns finally and permanently against the war. Many now believe that Sheehan has provided that final push. 'It has definitely tipped now,' said Professor Steve Zunes, a political scientist at the University of San Francisco.
Sheehan has undoubtedly exposed deep fractures within the American public. But for every parent of a soldier in Iraq joining her, others have been swift to condemn her campaign. Some parents have travelled to Sheehan's camp to take down crosses commemorating their dead children. One such was Gary Qualls, whose son died in Falluja. 'I find it disrespectful,' he said. A Crawford resident drove his truck over the field of crosses by the roadside. Yet another fired his gun over the heads of the protesters. Yet Sheehan has become the lone voice that kick-started a chorus.
Whether Bush agrees to her demand for a meeting (and it is unlikely he will) is now largely irrelevant. The political legacy left by her summer of protest will last far longer than the ramshackle tents of Camp Casey lining the roads outside Bush's ranch. 'This is now about far more than Cindy Sheehan. She has given people the confidence to speak out about the war that they didn't have before. Finally, its OK in America to be anti-war,' Zunes said.
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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1553345,00.html
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