Don't Forget The Real Meaning of Camp Casey

[The Donkey]

"The pen is mightier than the sword" - Edward George Bulwer Lytton

"Maybe so, but truth kicks the living crap out of the pen" - TBR

So it seems as though the nation is completely abuzz with this whole Cindy Sheehan protest/vigil occurring down in Crawford, Texas. This event (such as it has become) is shaping up as perhaps the most polarizing event this country has seen since the initial Iraqi invasion.

Because the vigil has captured international attention, it might be a good idea to step back for a second and recap the events that led us to this point, so that we may understand the issue better.

Cindy is the mother to Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, who died April 24 of last year in Iraq. About two months later, Mrs. Sheehan was invited to meet with President Bush. After this initial meeting, she expressed that she felt as though the President had empathy for the families of the bereaved, and cared sincerely about the freedom of the Iraqi people. However, Cindy left the meeting feeling that certain actions by the President made her uncomfortable. For example, he never referred to her by name, and called her “Ma”, or “Mom”. Additionally, Bush didn’t seem to know or care about the identity of her son, or even his gender, referring to him as “your loved one”.

She also became upset with Bush’s statements that soldiers who were killed in action in Iraq all died “for a noble cause”. Since Iraq had no connection to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Iraq never declared war on the United States, never had weapons of mass destruction, and had not been a threat to anyone in the international community for over a decade, Mrs. Sheehan decided that she wanted to a second audience with the president to find out exactly what that “noble cause” was, since it initially had nothing to do with the War on Terror or our national security.

When the President scheduled a 5-week vacation at his Crawford ranch in Texas, Cindy decided to travel down there herself in order to hold a vigil near his ranch in an effort to get a bit of time with him, so that she could find the answer to her question. The President has refused to meet with her, sparking the growing event that we see today. Currently there are hundreds of people who have made the pilgrimage to Crawford to offer support to Mrs. Sheehan. The vigil has attracted the interest of the domestic and world media, as well as a growing percentage of the national population, who all want to know how President Bush defines his “noble cause”.

Cindy Sheehan has single-handedly managed to do what the entire media (as well as the Democratic party for that matter) have failed to do for years: hold the administration’s feet to the fire to actually justify a war, the excuses for which have changed several times since the initial invasion.

The attention this matter has received has exerted considerable pressure on those who are behind this war. While the President himself has not said anything negative about Mrs. Sheehan, he has still refused to meet with her. His excuse? Meeting with her for 15 minutes would disrupt his ability to “keep a balanced life” during the tenure of his 5-week vacation.

While the administration itself has kept mum about Cindy, the conservative attack dogs (as well as a few nut-job locals) have been more than happy to making the smearing of her a full-time job. Here are a few choice quotes from the typical gang of suspects:

"I think she has been hijacked by some very, very far left elements. . . Other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq, who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous." - Bill O’Reilly, August 9

“Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left” – Rush Limbaugh, August 15

“To expiate the pain of losing her firstborn son in the Iraq war, Cindy Sheehan decided to cheer herself up by engaging in Stalinist agitprop outside President Bush's Crawford ranch. It's the strangest method of grieving I've seen since Paul Wellstone's funeral. Someone needs to teach these liberals how to mourn.” – Ann Coulter, August 17

“Well, I think that it's true that there are Americans who feel the way Cindy Sheehan does. Unfortunately, they are Americans who are very anti-Israel and, in some ways, anti-Semitic. She uses the term how the "neocons" are doing this thing -- that's code word for "the Jews in the Pentagon." – G Gordon Liddy, August 17

"She has, just today, lied about a statement that she made several times before to the effect that her son was killed in a war run by a secret Jewish cabal within the administration. She now says she didn't make that statement. She did make that statement. So as well as being an hysterical paranoid ideologist, or at least being manipulated by people who are, who turned this into Camp Fruitbat and Nutbag, she has decided not to have the courage or maybe the cowardice of her conviction. She now says she didn't make a statement that she definitely did.” – Christopher Hitchens, August 17

"It's very hard to have respect for a woman who exploits the death of her own son and doesn't respect her own son's life. This young man volunteered twice. This is not a draftee. This is somebody who volunteered, did a tour of four years and volunteered back for Iraq, and volunteered for the specific mission. I haven't heard one word out of Cindy Sheehan's mouth that respects what her son did. She portrays him as an idiot who was used by deceitful liars.” – David Horowitz, August 16

Surely, the purpose of Cindy Sheehan’s vigil has been twisted beyond proportion. Who knew that the woman was such a monster? Thank goodness we have an unbiased corps of truth-tellers to let us know how much this woman hates America. Why, she would even exploit the death of her own son just to get her anti-America views on TV!

If there’s only one thing we should remember about this whole story, it is this:

The only thing Cindy Sheehan is armed with is a question.

She is not brandishing weapons. She is not even directly disrupting the President on his lengthy vacation. She and the protesters are not breaking any laws. In fact, they appear to have a congenial relationship with the local police. She just wants to understand why her son died. That’s all. She has no plans to gain power, wealth, or fame for herself. She just wants an explanation of the real justification of her son’s death from the man who set into motion the events that led to it.

Why is it that the massive coterie of right wing pundits and administration apologists (as well as the administration itself) are so threatened by a slight, middle-aged woman armed only with a question? The answer is that they have no answer to her question – at least not an honest one that doesn’t implicate them from their own lies. Keep that in mind whenever you see anyone attempt to twist coverage of the "Camp Casey" vigil.

[MnFats]

1. They must be warming up a special place in hell for Ann Coulter....

how dare you, you wretched hag, besmirch how people mourn.
how dare you, you soulless demon, invoke the memory of Paul Wellstone to make your convoluted point.
Ann Coulter, you are not worthy to clean the mud from the boots of either Casey Sheehan or Paul Wellstone....