Camp Casey 2 springs up in Chico Ca.

[titoresque]

This is great!!!!!!!

August 15th, 2005 3:59 am
Peace-seekers find common cause at Camp Casey in Chico


By Mando Navarro / Chico Enterprise Record

Their question is rather simple, yet getting an answer seems almost impossible. But that doesn't matter to them: They will continue to ask and continue to camp.

Cindy Sheehan, who's become a national spokeswoman creating TV ads against the Iraq war since her son Casey, 24, died in Sadr City, Iraq in April of 2004, rolled out her sleeping bag and pitched her tent last week next to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas with that one question.

Sheehan, in her quest to have another one-on-one discussion with Bush since she didn't get the answer she was looking for the first time, has motivated some followers.

Camp Casey has begun in Chico, with about 20 people dedicated to seeking the "real" answer to the same question Sheehan has: Why?

Why is it that Sheehan carries a picture of Casey everywhere she goes — including her trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with Bush and tried to show him the picture? He wouldn't look at it. And when he answered her question of why, all he said was, "I believe every person deserves to be free."

Why is it that more than 1,800 American mothers and fathers grieve every day because their son or daughter was taken too soon by war?

And why does Helen Kelling hope her son — who has gone absent without leave — becomes a fugitive instead of going to Iraq, where he was recently deployed?

The question haunts many people, especially parents who have lost a child. And since Bush hasn't given an answer that satisfies many Americans, people have started to come up with their own conclusions.

"This is not a war," said Robert Trausch, a Vietnam veteran who will be camping out as long as he has to at Children's Playground downtown. "It's an invasion and an occupation. The men and women dying are dying because of false reasons," he said, "not democracy; they're dying because rich people want oil."

Trausch is also upset about how much money is being used in the war.

"The estimated $1.4 trillion should go to infrastructure and education," he said. "It's not for killing people in foreign countries and making enemies."

Trausch, along with many others camping out, just wants troops to start coming home. Peace is what should drive this country, not war, he said.

"You bring peace by building infrastructures, education — not by the end of a missile," he said.

Angered, worried and just flat-out disgusted, Kelling, whose son is somewhere in Germany, she thinks, feels the same as Trausch about the war and its leaders.

Kelling's son — whose name cannot be mentioned for privacy reasons — decided he wanted to join the Army after many promises were made to him by recruiters. His mom knew it was a bad idea from the start, but couldn't stop her son from enlisting.

"He got promised all this stuff; he wanted to be a detective that hunted down terrorists," she said. "He was sent to Iraq — he did nothing but combat training."

Kelling's son, who has served for about 1 1/2 years, signed up for five years. After many broken promises, crooked sergeants, and being overworked even with a sprained ankle, Kelling's son decided to leave and is now considered AWOL by the U.S. Army.

"After a year of craziness and many lies," Kelling said, "he snapped and left the base."

Now Kelling hopes her son can get some help from political fugitive experts who can help him remain a fugitive without having to be punished by the Army and possibly do time in prison.

But prison sounds like a better option to Kelling, she said. She'd rather have her son in prison than go back to the Army where he was treated poorly and just wasn't comfortable learning to kill someone.

"My son isn't oriented to killing," she said.

And for his dream of becoming a detective, that will never come true.

When he tried to get into the program, there were too many specific guidelines he didn't fit into, Kelling said. But he was never told that when he enlisted, she added. Finding time to go through the schooling was also a factor.

"He just didn't have time (to train or learn)," she said. "They work him day and night. He's like a slave. I feel like my son got captured and turned into a slave."

Kelling doesn't get many phone calls from her son, who she hopes is safe and hanging out with friends. She has no way of reaching him, but if she could tell him something she would tell him to not worry about making the decision he did about going AWOL and it's not his fault, it's the Army's fault.

"He's the bad guy," she said, mocking the way the Army probably sees him. "My son is the dishonorable discharge, but I think the Army's dishonorable."

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Wow.

I used to live in Chico.

You'd better cut that down to 4 paragraphs and a link, though. The Chico Enterprise-Record is one reactionary newspaper.

--p!